Brothers In Crime
by Firestar'sniece
Summary: When Percy is forced to live on Atlantis after the giant war to learn to use and gain control over some new powers, Poseidon appoints Triton as his teacher. But when Triton begins bullying Percy, a fight ensues, during which a precious item of Poseidon's is broken. Now both brothers are forced to work together to get it secretly fixed, without Poseidon and Amphitrite finding out.
1. Chapter 1: The Fight

**I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or Heroes of Olympus.**

Chapter One: The Fight

(Percy Point of View)

Percy Jackson was not your average hero, or you average person for that matter. For one, he was now a god, and two unlike others he was still allowed to interact with his mortal family.

After the giant war along with rewards the seven and Nico were offered to become gods and goddesses (well, they didn't really have a choice in that). Thalia was told that once she was killed she would become a goddess. They were also told that any future spouse they married would become a god/goddess.

While they became gods and goddesses, due to their connections to their mortal families and their desire to have some mortal experiences, they were allowed to live as mortals (despite being gods and goddesses) for a little while longer, as long as they had mortal connections that is. Percy, no doubt, thought he would take advantage of the fact that they had not elaborated on that later, but even with this allowance he still asked to be a demigod for a little while longer. They said they would give him until age twenty five. If he died before then they would make him a god.

Annabeth and the others chose to become gods and goddesses immediately, but Percy chose to delay a bit. He still wanted a somewhat normal life. Then about six months after meeting Carter Kane who had become his friend, his father came to him.

Poseidon was wearing his usual beach attire, and he had a nervous look on his face as he knocked on Percy's apartment. To the god's relief, it was Percy who answered it. In fact, it appeared that the others weren't there, and for the errand he had to run, Poseidon preferred it that way.

"Dad?!" Percy asked incredulous but excited. The gods were allowed to interact with their children more now, and most visited their children at least once a week, but Poseidon usually visited Percy on an exact schedule. He was not anticipating seeing his father until the next day.

Quickly, Percy bowed to him and invited Poseidon in, hastily cleaning his scattered homework off of the couch. He tried to clean up the mess around the apartment, cheeks red as he hastily stuffed a bag of buttered popcorn back in the microwave and Poseidon sat down to watch him. When the boy was done he faced his father leaning against the opposite wall. "So..." Percy began awkwardly. "What brings you here?"

Poseidon hesitated, not sure how to break it to his son. He knew Percy would be disappointed, angry, and might fight a bit, but he had no other choice. Zeus had ordered him to do it. 'Oh well,' the man thought. 'When everything goes wrong, I'll just blame my brother. It **_was_** his idea, after all.' Poseidon nervously cleared his throat. "As you know," he began slowly, trying to go about this gently. "You are my son, and I am king of the sea. Even though you were illegitimately born, you are still a prince, royalty, specifically a prince of the sea, not only because you are the son of a king, the king of the sea specifically, but you are royal because your uncle is king of the gods and because your grandfather was king of the titans."

Percy hesitated before nodded. He hadn't thought about this before. He had never assumed that he was a prince even though he knew that he was of royal blood. Truth be told he didn't really think he was counted a prince because he was born illegitimately, but he guessed he was wrong.

Poseidon seemed to recognize his train of thought and gently assured him, "Yes Percy. Though it is not officially addressed, all the gods and goddesses related in some manner to the big three and to the titans are royalty, princes and princesses. However the more closely you are related to the big three and our siblings, the more status one has. And the closer one is related to the king of the gods, the more status one has amongst the gods. You may have been born illegitimately, but you are still a prince of the gods and of the sea. We don't follow the same rules that exist in Europe where illegitimate children, though they are recognized when they have royal blood, aren't princes and princesses."

Percy frowned. "I guess I get it. But I still don't see what this has to do with anything," he replied.

Poseidon hesitated more. He knew that this would be difficult on his son. "Well, Percy, when you become a god you will become higher in status that most, not only in the kingdom of the sea but in the kingdom of the gods as well. All your godly powers will be strengthened and you will be more powerful than before. As such, when you become a god you will need to receive more training on how to control them."

As the boy leaned back against the wall again he shrugged nonchalantly. "And I'll cross that bridge when I come to it," he replied, not at all worried. "But in all honesty, that's a few years from now. I'm not worried about it."

That's when silence suddenly reigned and Percy seemed to notice his father's hesitation. "It is a few years from now, right?" he directed at his father and once again there was silence.

Poseidon decided to skirt the topic. "As you know, your former step mother, Queen Amphitrite, who has become fond of you, has decided to adopt you, and in fact she already has. While it is true that you are a prince, illegitimate children have slightly less status than those legitimately born, though not by much. By adopting you, you will have full status and greater status, as much as if you were legitimately born. But you are still your birth mother's child. You merely have two mothers now."

The boy smiled. He had become fond of Amphitrite and viewed her as his mother as well. Perhaps that's because he knew that in the end he would want a mother when his birth mother was dead, and when she had offered to adopt him, he had immediately said yes. He couldn't help but be happy that he had two mothers.

"I'm really happy that she did it," Percy admitted. "Truth be told, when I met her, she didn't seem to like me very much. Now I'm merely grateful that she wants me as part of the family, that she's willing to include me. Even if she had decided not to adopt me, I would have been happy merely because she included me like a son."

The sea god smiled and he too was joyful that his son was going to be involved more in his and his wife's lives. "But there is one other thing," Poseidon began again. "As you know, when you become a god you are going to have greater responsibilities. Not only will you have a responsibility in the family kingdom as a prince of the sea, but you will have godly responsibilities placed on you by merely being a god. Due to defeating Kronos, if you wish you could take his place, but I highly doubt they'll give you the option. I wanted to warn you that more than likely they'll hand it to you, but you don't have to begin those duties until your fully able to handle your duties as being a prince and god of the sea."

As Percy considered his father he couldn't help but feel that something was being held back. "What else is going on?" Percy asked and to his surprise, his father flinched as if he was hoping that he wouldn't ask that question.

"Well," Poseidon hesitated but knew the inevitable was coming. "As it turns out, those duties may come sooner than you think."

Immediately Percy froze. "Wh-what do you mean?" he whispered quietly, a look of pure horror on his face. He had been through Tartarus and back and all Percy had asked was for some time to be perfectly normal. Had they actually gone back on their word?

"Percy," Poseidon gently murmured. "Some things have... happened and it was not my decision. Because this is not a matter of the sea, Zeus has a final say. He has... ordered that you change into godhood be sped up."

Silence reigned once more and then Percy stood straight up in shock and alarm. "What!" he shouted, even though he knew that it may not be the most respectful of things to do. "But he promised! You promised! It wasn't supposed to be until I was twenty five! I wasn't even given a choice in the godhood thing, I was merely told that I would be, even if I didn't want it!"

Both Percy and Poseidon knew that that wasn't exactly what was said, but in the end, that was the message that was sent, that Percy was becoming a god no matter what. Percy had been able to deal with it only because he was promised that once he became a god he could still live somewhat of a normal mortal-like life afterward while attending his godly and princely duties and because it would be delayed until he was twenty five. But as the part of it where it would not being done until he was twenty five hadn't been sworn on the river Styx, while the rest, including living like a mortal afterward, had, thus Percy knew that they could go back on their promise without consequences. As Percy thought on it now, Zeus had been careful not to include the part where he couldn't become a god until he was at least twenty five or he died, whichever came first. He must have known that he was going to break it.

Percy stared at his father in betrayal. "Why?" he asked. "Why would he do this?"

Poseidon sighed. "Whether you believe it or not, Zeus has acknowledged your unique perspective. In fact the reason he wants you as my lieutenant is because of that unique perspective. That is the same reason he wants you as a god sooner. You see, the gods are trying to patch things up with their mortal family, and you have lived as a demigod and can provide that perspective."

"But Annabeth was a demigod as well!" Percy blurted out. "And Jason and Nico! Why can't he just ask them?"

"Because you're unique," Poseidon explained gently, standing up to walk over to his son. He put a hand on the boy's shoulders but Percy merely shrugged it off and walked away. "I didn't have a choice!" Poseidon pled. "It wasn't a matter of the seas! It was outside of my jurisdiction! I may be on the council of Olympus, but Zeus as king of the gods has the final word in such matters as this!"

Percy remained silent for a little while longer, almost moping about his impending godhood. Finally he asked quietly, "How much longer do I have as a mortal?" He turned to face his father, and as he did so Poseidon could see how upset his son was despite how much he tried to mask it.

The great sea god sighed. "Until after this conversation," he admitted.

Percy's jaw dropped and there was such a look of betrayal in the boy's eyes that Poseidon couldn't help but be hurt. Percy, running on emotion and not quite thinking, walked over towards his jacket, put it on, and walked out the door without another word, slamming it behind him. Poseidon was left staring after him before sighing and flashing back to Olympus. What was done was done.

The moment Percy walked out the door there was a brief flash of brilliant bright white light and he was turned into a god. Poseidon knew that it would be best to leave the boy alone for now to calm down. He was still, after all, a teenager.

(A little while later)

(Percy Point of View)

When Percy left the apartment he hadn't even realized what he was doing. All he knew was that he was mad, but the moment he left the apartment he immediately regretted it. He was made a god. Mad he ran away, blindly walking through the streets of New York. The odd thing was he was quite aware of his surroundings at the same time. It was a different feeling. He felt stronger, more powerful, and his senses were sharper now that he was immortal. And unlike being a mere immortal, like Thalia, he couldn't die.

And Percy hated it. 'I thought I would have more time,' he thought. Not once did he want this, but at least if he could wait until he was twenty five he could have more time to prepare for his new life. It was almost like finding out that he was a demigod, only a thousand times worse. Immediately, upon becoming a god, he felt the pressures and responsibilities being put on him. He had no idea it would be like this. 'Poor Annabeth,' he thought back to the time when she was made a goddess in front of him. 'She must have been shocked when it happened.'

He sighed and to his surprise he had wound up at the sea shore. Now that he was a god he could have multiple trains of thought at the same time; he wasn't limited like a normal human was of thinking of one thing at a time. No wonder the gods didn't understand mortals! They could think of more than one thing at the same time and solve more than one thing at the same time.

Suddenly, another voice was in his head and Percy immediately knew it was his father. 'You can go home when your ready,' he informed the boy. 'Or if you choose you can come home to Atlantis when your done wandering. Your mother wants to meet your properly now that your a god. She's rather excited about it but she understands that you may need some space.'

Percy sighed and decided to use the mental communication back. 'Does my birth mother and step father know?' he asked back, not sure if it would work.

But sure enough it did. 'I think you'll be able to tell them. Just make sure that you keep your temper in check. Remember that their mortals and your more powerful now. It can be easy to accidentally harm them without meaning to.'

Percy thought about going home to his mother. That was, after all, where he would be living most of the time. But instead of living at Camp Half Blood for the summer, Percy would be living with his father in his father's palace for the summer, but he would be allowed to visit Camp Half Blood whenever he felt like it, whether summer, winter, spring, or autumn.

But as he thought on going to Atlantis now that he was a god, he couldn't help but remember the time after the giant war that his father had personally brought him there. Of course that was before he realized that Zeus would back out on his promise and make him a god sooner. Poseidon and taken him and shown him his princely room close to Triton's (and boy was it huge), then he had proceeded to give him a tour. Percy was pleased that his room was also close to Tyson's, and he had even been able to talk with his half brother briefly at the forge when he visited.

His step mother (now adoptive mother) had been a little distant at first, but when Percy bowed to her, showing her the respect that was due to a Queen, she had warmed up to him and had become more welcoming. And she became nicer and nicer each time Percy visited Atlantis. Eventually she had even come to visit him, at his apartment. The next time she visited it was not for Percy but for Percy's mother. She came to inform Sally that she had forgiven her for her relationship with her husband and to ask her permission to adopt Percy, informing the mortal that she would still have her motherly rights to Percy as well. The only difference would be that Percy would have a second mother, and a better place and status on Atlantis as well as a mother when Sally passed on. Sally agreed, glad that Percy could have a family when she and her husband died.

Tyson himself had been excited when he found out that Percy would be at Atlantis more. Percy was happy that cyclops lived a long time. He certainly didn't want to lose his brother any time soon. In fact, for the most part, his times at Atlantis had been fun and enjoyable.

The only problems Percy had were with his godly half brother Triton. Triton was never pleased when he arrived and always seemed to be in a bad mood. He either ignored Percy or teased him, trying to irritate Percy with his condescending manner towards the demigod. Triton acted like Percy didn't belong on Atlantis, despite Queen Amphitrite adopting him and despite the fact that Percy had tried to be polite to his half brother, now brother.

But Triton had ignored these attempts, even the times when Percy tried to talk to him to get to know him better. Triton would ignore him and and act like he didn't exist and wasn't in the room at all. When Queen Amphitrite noted this she sighed. "I'll talk to him," she informed Percy, smiling kindly. Then she walked after her birth son, and Percy was left all alone.

Percy admitted that he was most frustrated with his father for Triton's behavior. While his father and Queen Amphitrite (who allowed him to call her mom or mother) would comfort Percy about it, Poseidon would do nothing about Triton's behavior. Queen Amphitrite alone was the one confronting Triton about it, and one time Percy thought he had heard Amphitrite chastising Poseidon for his lack of intervening in the situation in Percy's behalf.

Triton knew that Percy was to become a god, and whenever this excitement was brought up in the kingdom, Triton would get irritable and frustrated. No doubt he was mad about it. But now that Percy _**was**_ a god, he wondered how his brother would respond.

As Percy was brought back to the present, his thoughts taking less than a second to complete, he hesitantly asked his father, 'Does... does Lord Triton know that I'm now... you know..."

He thought he heard his father chuckle in his thoughts. 'Old habits are heard to get rid of?' he mentioned in amusement. But he must have sensed Percy's confusion for he added, "Now that your a god you don't need to address any of the gods as 'lord' or 'lady' any more, Percy. Of course you should still respect them as we all respect each other, but your not obligated to those rules that mortals and demigods are bound by. Amphitrite and I don't mind if you call us mom and dad. You are not bound any more to address your brother as 'lord' any more.'

'But I don't think he'll appreciate that very much,' Percy mentioned, nervous now that they were on the same level for the most part. He also wanted to correct his father, stating that the gods don't always respect each other, but he decided not to try his luck.

'And he'll have to deal with it,' came the response. 'Yes, Percy. Everyone knew almost immediately when Zeus announced it suddenly today, and in the world of the gods, news spreads fast, faster than the internet in fact. It is very hard to keep secrets in the world of the gods. Yes, Triton knows.' Poseidon seemed to hesitate before adding, 'In fact he was grumbling about it earlier before I left. But your mother and I have talked to him and he knows to show you respect when you finally come to Atlantis. But as to whether or not he will do that...' Poseidon trailed off, not sure what else to say.

'Well that settles it then,' Percy replied somewhat frustrated. Another portion of his mind wandered, wondering how on earth Poseidon knew about the internet, and that part of his mind made a mental note to ask about it later. But his most important thoughts were centered on what kind of troubles lay in store for him on Atlantis. 'I'll go back to my mortal mother's place and I'll come to Atlantis during the summer. I need some time to adjust.'

To his surprise Poseidon seemed to hesitate at this. 'Actually, though you can go to your birth mother's place, we would like to you come to Atlantis today or tomorrow. At least for a week or two.'

The smell of salty sea wafted towards Percy and his eyes widened. 'For at least a week?! I have school! I can't exactly miss out!'

'Relax, Percy. We'll mist them.'

'That's not the point! I have to be there to know what we're learning about!'

'And you will be _**properly**_ educated on Atlantis,' Poseidon tried to reassure him, but Percy couldn't help but notice how he emphasized the word 'properly', albeit subtly. It was as if his mortal education was inferior and wasn't good enough, but as Percy thought on it, with the amount the gods knew, it probably was inferior. 'Don't worry, it will include what mortals learn, including your English classes. After all, we have to know how to properly interact with mortals. But it will include much more than that as well.'

'But that's not the point!' Percy pointed out. 'I wanted a normal _**mortal **_experience! That's why I wanted to wait!'

'I know,' the man tried to comfort his son. 'But it's too late for that now. I know that you're upset, but you don't have to sacrifice everything. Besides, you're only coming because Amphitrite wants to see you properly, and so that you can receive your first lessons about being a god at the hands of Triton.'

Immediately when Poseidon said the last part, Percy knew it was a bad idea. 'Lord Triton!' Percy exclaimed, wondering how on earth it would turn out. He was still wary to adopt godly customs for his brother due to the enmity Triton had for him. 'But he hates me!'

'Yes, well,' Poseidon hesitantly began. 'Your friends had their first godly lessons immediately after they became such because it's imperative that new gods master their new powers soon so that they're safe around mortals and not out of control. So the same is for you. After all, if you want to live with your mortal family, you're going to need these first few lessons.'

'But why can't you give it!' Percy pled, practically begging.

'Because,' came the response. 'I have some duties on Olympus to attend to for a little bit, ones that require me to be present, and your mother is going to have to run the kingdom, which is presently _**incredibly**_ busy right now, so she won't have time to teach you either. That leaves only Triton since Tyson is not a god. He is the only one available to teach you. Don't worry, as soon as I get back I'll take over your lessons and when things calm down, your mother will also have a hand in teaching you. You won't have to worry about your brother teaching you then. But until then...'

As Poseidon trailed off Percy frowned and folded his arms in frustration. 'Fine,' he grumbled. 'I just hope he doesn't use it as a time to humiliate me!'

'We've spoken to him,' Poseidon tried to reassure him, but somehow Percy doubted that would make a difference. 'He knows that he's going to be your teacher.'

'Fine,' Percy rolled his eyes, frustrated beyond all reason. His day, which had started off perfect by an unexpected visit from his father was now ruined. 'At least let me inform my birth mom before she worries.'

Percy imagined that his father would be smiling at this, and so he headed home. He wasn't surprised to see his mother there, and as her back was to him, he wondered how she would respond when she saw him and noticed that he was a new god. Paul, his step father, was nowhere to be seen and he could only imagine that Paul's reaction would be worse, almost pure panic that he now had a godly step son.

As he walked up to his mother and tapped her on the shoulder, he could feel the tension in his body. Sally spun around and when she looked at him she didn't seem to notice anything different at first. That was until she took a closer look at him.

"Percy?" she asked aloud, curiosity on her face. "What happened to you?" Though Percy didn't look any different, there was now a new aura and feeling of power that came from him being a god.

The boy sighed and led his mother to the couch where he sat down and put his head in his hands. "They did it prematurely," he explained, his tone mourning. "Dad came by earlier. He...he said that Zeus didn't give him a choice. I was made a god as soon as I walked out the door."

Sally put her arms around Percy and hugged him tightly, wanting to comfort him. "I know you didn't want it, honey. I'm really sorry that it happened." But even she was powerless to do anything.

Percy sighed. "Dad wants me to come to his palace," he explained. "Something about learning to use my new powers so that I don't end up accidentally harming anyone."

"Then go," his mother ordered him, caressing his cheek gently. "I'm sure we can come up with a cover story for you."

Suddenly, Percy realized that his capability to use the mist was increased. He had learned to use it a little bit after the giant war, actually he had experimented with it when using it to conceal the Argo II as they landed in near Rome. But now that he was a god, he was able to use it without any difficulty, unlike before.

"That's okay," he reassured his mother. Snapping his fingers he immediately thought of a cover story, knowing the mist would be applied. His mother seemed confused at what he was doing at first, but then her eyes widened in understanding and she stared curiously back. "A domestic dispute," Percy explained. "A custody battle. My father lives in Greece and demanded that I come stay with him for a bit, so you had to oblige. He's a wealthy man, and he wants me to go to a private school there where he feels that I will be educated better."

Sally nodded in understanding. "I guess I'd better tell Paul so that he'll know the cover story.

Percy hugged her and then sighed. He was not looking forward to his trip.

(A little while later)

(Percy Point of View)

Percy stood in Poseidon's palace waiting for a chance to speak with his father (it was his father's idea, not his as he didn't really want to talk to him). His father had told him he wanted to talk, but needed to wait until after speaking to Delphin, so Percy used to the time to take a look at the architecture of the palace room they were in, wondering what Annabeth would think about it.

Poseidon was going to leave soon afterward but he had promised to talk to his son before he left, so Percy knew it was inevitable to get out of it. When Delphin swam away, Poseidon turned to face his son, but Percy turned away slightly and refused to meet his gaze. "You could have refused Lord Zeus, you know," Percy bitterly started, but ended with that statement.

Poseidon sighed, the man looking somewhat older all of a sudden when his demeanor changed. "Listen, Percy, I know that this is hard for you, but it's impossible for you to be made a mortal again. Once a god, always a god. But this life does have it's ups. You'll see."

When Percy refused to respond or speak anymore Poseidon came and put his arm around the boy's shoulder. "I'm sorry," he whispered but Percy still refused to respond. Finally the god sighed, realizing he wasn't going to get anywhere with this. "Work hard," he ordered his son. "Put all your efforts in. I'll be back as soon as I can, I promise."

Percy merely nodded and then turned to look back at his dad. "I'll work hard," the boy managed to say despite the pain of betrayal that still coursed through him. "But that doesn't mean I like this situation. I didn't want this at all."

Poseidon nodded. "I know," he whispered, then patted him on the shoulder before flashing away.

Percy did have to admit that there were some perks to being a god, though. For one, he no longer had to look away when a god flashed away. The other was that he could manipulate the mist with ease.

But he didn't have time to dwell on this as Amphitrite and Triton walked in. Amphitrite looked him up and down before smiling at him. "You do seem to look slightly different," she observed softly, walking around him slowly. Percy stayed still as she did so and nervously glanced at Triton. The god was now in his more human form and had folded his arms in dissatisfaction, his demeanor indicating that he was not pleased Percy was here. But Percy was immediately brought back to Amphitrite when she continued her train of thought. "You're stronger, no doubt faster, and you seem to have a little more muscle, though you are still lean. You're slightly taller and your features are more perfected. But still, they're differences that no mortal would notice."

She stopped right in front of him, looking Percy in the eyes. She seemed to hesitate politely before venturing, "How did your birth mother react?"

Percy glanced away slightly before looking back and responding, "She didn't notice at first. The only thing she noticed was that there was power about me. She didn't notice that I looked different."

Queen Amphitrite nodded. "That sounds just about fair. As I said, the physical changes aren't really something that a mortal would notice. But you do radiate a specific power that can be felt. All gods do. But, surprisingly, you're able to suppress it really well, something a new god is not really able to do. I suspect that you will come far in a short while during your training." She smiled at him and that made Percy feel somewhat better.

"Thank you, my lady," he responded and Triton scoffed in the background at which Amphitrite gave him a reprimanding glare which Triton conveniently chose not to notice.

The young looking queen smiled at him again. "Please, you no longer need the formalities now that you're one of us. Seeing as I have adopted you, I am now your mother and if you wish to address me as such, it is your right. I wouldn't mind."

Despite the awkwardness, Percy decided to try his luck. "Of course... mother," he tried and to his surprise Amphitrite smiled at this, pleased that he had called her 'mother'. This encouraged Percy more, and the awkwardness between him and his new mother slowly began to evaporate.

Only Triton seemed displeased with the new developments. He scowled at Percy and rolled his eyes when Percy called Queen Amphitrite 'mother'. But the queen took no notice of this, seemingly deep in thought. When she was pulled out of her thoughts again she gently brushed Percy's cheek, smiling some, and whispered, "Train hard, son. You may be new to this but you will progress faster than you imagine."

She backed up some, heading towards the exit, leaving Triton and Percy together. Before she left she looked back. "I expect the two of you to get along, now. After all, this is now a permanent situation. I would be training you personally, Percy, if it weren't for the fact that I have to run the entire kingdom alone while your father is away, and that is going to be occupying my time. Because of that, as you already know, Triton is your teacher. I expect you to listen to him and work hard. Triton, no teasing or bullying him. Treat him nicely and train him well."

With that she walked out.

An awkward silence seemed to fill the room as the brothers were left alone. Percy was nervously looking at his new teacher and Triton had his arms folded still, staring disapprovingly back at Percy.

The silent void was broken by Percy. "So," he tried to venture, hoping to not get on his new teacher's nerves. "What are we going to be doing now?"

To Percy's surprise, this only caused Triton to frown even more. And he thought his brother couldn't possibly frown even further...

"First of all," Triton sternly replied, no approval in his voice. That, and he was now glaring at Percy. "You will not speak unless spoken to. Second of all, we meet and will only be seen together for lessons. Outside of lessons, I expect you to stay as far away from me as possible, and I expect you to _**stay away from our palace**_."

"Um," Percy began. He ran his right hand through his hair and looked away as he awkwardly replied, "I kind of live here now."

Triton scowled even more. "Can't you go back to your mortal mother?" he practically snapped.

But, having had enough, Percy shook his head and bravely looked Triton in the eyes, the awkward tension gone. "I can't until I've mastered my first few lessons," he explained back. "Apparently it's too dangerous for me to be around them until otherwise."

At the growled mumbling under his breath, Triton seemed to grudgingly accept this. Percy knew that he could understand what his brother had said if he wanted to, but he had a feeling that he didn't want to know what the sea god was saying, so he chose to ignore it. "Fine!" Triton snapped back with increasing irritation. "You don't have to go back to your mortal mother, but stay away from the palace! Wander the seas if you want to! But stay away! Understood?"

At this Percy was beginning to be irritated himself. "I thought the whole point of this was to learn to get along also," the boy pointed out, though he had a feeling it would only make the situation worse. Still, he was tired of being pushed around by the older god, and he wasn't going to be told what to do and what not to do.

An irritated hiss left his brother's throat and Triton walked up to Percy, trying to intimidate him. But Percy didn't flinch. He stared back defiantly. Percy could tell that Triton was trying to contain his temper and though the older god used a much softer tone, Percy could tell the threat behind it. "Just stay out of my way, out of my palace and sea, and we'll get along," Triton glared and then he pushed roughly past him towards the door. "Hurry up!" he yelled after Percy when the boy didn't immediately follow. "We have a lot to do today. And I will not accept slacking."

But Percy stood firmly, folding _**his**_ own arms, and he refused to go anywhere. When Triton turned around and saw the defiant Percy, he pointed towards the door and yelled, "Get going!"

Percy rolled his eyes and stared defiantly back. "No," he replied firmly and harshly.

If there was ever a more incredulous look on Triton's face, it was now. Clearly he hadn't been anticipating his younger brother to have the guts to stand up to him. But Triton was now furious, more furious than ever, and from the look on his face he was determined to get what he wanted, even if he had to push Percy to get it. He took one step forward. "What did you say?" he demanded of the younger god.

Unfortunately, Percy seemed to have the same determination to get what _**he **_wanted, even if it meant defying Triton. "I said _**no**_," the younger god replied firmly and clearly, trying to get his point across. "I'm not doing anything until we solve our differences and can at least treat each other with respect. I'm not going to do what you want if you're just going to yell at me."

Triton clenched his fists at this and he took another step towards Percy. "You will do what I say!" he yelled back, but Percy shook his head.

"I will not be pushed around and tossed around like a bean bag!" Percy yelled back, his own anger growing. Triton, though seemingly confused at the expressions Percy used, seemed to get the point and in an instant he was in front of Percy, a hand around his throat.

"You _**will**_ do as _**I**_ say!" Triton threatened, but he clearly wasn't expecting Percy's next move, nor the effect it would have.

Percy grabbed his wrist, and using an aikido move he had learned, he twisted Triton's wrist, forcing the older god to release his grip. Then, bringing his other hand under his elbow and bending it, he lifted Triton's arm over his head in one fluid motion, and in an instant he was behind Triton, pinning the other god helplessly to the ground. It all happened in less than a second, and Percy could feel Triton's anger and embarrassment growing that he had been defeated so easily by his younger brother who, only hours ago, had been a mere mortal. Percy made a mental note to continue his martial arts training as it seemed to have superior tactics, but right now, he also felt an increase in anger himself. "I'm not your slave!" Percy hissed back. Then he released him.

The moment Percy let go of him, Triton stood on his feet and whirled around, anger showing in his eyes. "How dare you!" he shouted, pointing his finger at Percy.

However, that did not improve the situation and tensions only built. "How dare _**you**_!" Percy yelled back, the situation escalating quickly. "What have I ever done to you?!" Percy let all his anger and frustrations off his chest in his monologue during the shouting match that ensued. "What have _**I**_ ever done to get you to hate me? I've tried! I've tried to get along! But you! All you've ever done is be rude and condescending towards me! I've tried to be nice, and all you've ever done is taunt me back for whatever stupid reason you want! You single _**me**_ out of all people! You don't even treat Tyson this way!"

"Leave Tyson out of this!" Triton ordered him sharply. "And for the record, I never wanted you here to begin with! Do you think I wanted to be your teacher? **_NO_**! But I got stuck with **_YOU_** anyways."

"Why do you hate me?" Percy continued, and he took a daring step forward. "Bring forward the evidence! Show me what I've done to offend you! If there is honestly anything I've done to offend you, I'm sorry! But I want to know why you hate me so much!"

"Because you exist!" was Triton's hurtful reply, and this only angered Percy more. "Dad broke the oath by having you! You shouldn't even have been born!"

"Right!" Percy took a step forward, bringing them closer. "And somehow that's supposed to be _**my**_ fault? I didn't do anything! If you have a problem with it, bring it up with dad since it's his fault! I have no control over anything dad does, or anything anyone else does for that matter! And may I point out how sorry an excuse that is? After all, you don't seem to be angry that Tyson exists, only me!"

"Leave Tyson out of this!" Triton hissed again and he was immediately in front of Percy. "He has nothing to do with this!"

"Then why am I the exception?" Percy spat back, stepping even closer. The water around them was bubbling and turbulent as the brothers battled it out with words, threatening to turn it into a physical match. "Explain to me why _**I**_ am singled out!"

"Shut up!" Triton hissed back, and Percy wondered where he had learned the modern language from. From father perhaps? After all, Poseidon visited the mortal world often. But he had no time to think on this.

"No!" came the shout back. "We're solving our differences right now! Like it or not, _**Lord**_ Triton, we're brothers, and we're going to have to deal with each other for the rest of our existence, which is eternity!"

But at this the boiling point, figuratively speaking, had been reached. Triton immediately slapped Percy hard, starting the physical fight that would change everything.

Percy, not one to take a blow and not strike back immediately pushed Triton back. Triton once again pulled back for a punch, but Percy had been training in the marital arts and even though he was still a beginner, his fighting skills were honed much better than before. He anticipated the blow, and not wanting to hurt his brother, he opted for more passive fighting methods. He leaned to the side and caught Triton's arm as it came rushing forward towards him, then, grabbing his wrist, he used his brother's momentum and flipped him onto the ground. "Enough!" Percy shouted back.

But Triton merely stood up and launched himself at him again. Percy moved forward and in an instant he was behind Triton. He leaned low and swept Triton's feet from underneath him, then, using his momentum, he spun around and kicked Triton as he got up.

Triton must have noticed that he was not going to win this fight using physical combat. Waving his hands, his trident appeared and Percy had to doge as a blow of godly power was sent towards him. Trying desperately to remember what little he had learned as a beginner about chi, Percy abandoned the thought immediately and instead, using his new godly powers, he shot a wave of pure light back at Triton.

The sparing continued, and Percy had to continually dodge Triton's harsher blows as the god was more experienced with his godly powers than Percy was. Percy, using the martial arts evading methods he had learned, tried to incorporate his own strikes in, and though they were less concentrated, at least he managed to hit Triton some, which only angered the god even further and made the god want to strike more.

They had both circled until they were both on opposite sides of the room, the thrones to Percy's left, and the exit to Percy's right.

Triton charged and Percy ran towards him. They quarreled for a bit, hitting and striking, and as Triton tried to turn his trident around to strike Percy, the younger god pushed him away. Now enough distance between them, Triton pointed his trident towards Percy and power began sparking inside the trident, getting ready to discharge.

In the instant that Triton did this, Percy grabbed the trident and turned it to keep it from hitting him. Without thinking, Percy pointed the trident to the left, where the thrones were, and the trident discharged.

A loud crash was heard and in an instant both brothers slowed down and slowly turned to face where the noise had been. Horrid anticipation filled both of their faces as they looked reluctantly to see what had happened.

They both froze when they saw the mess. But almost a second later they both paled extremely white, especially Percy.

On the ground, broken in three big pieces and splintered in many more, lay Poseidon's trident, his weapon and symbol of power, broken.

Percy continued looking at it in shock.

"Oh no. We are so dead."

**Thanks for reading! And if you are reading, please remember to review!**

**Remember, reviewing is a courtesy!**

**With thanks,**

**Firestar'sniece**


	2. Chapter 2: Changed Plans

**I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or Heroes of Olympus.**

**This chapter is dedicated with thanks to all those who reviewed my first chapter. **

**Hopefully this one is better than the first chapter. The first chapter was merely an introduction.**

Chapter Two: Changed Plans

(Percy Point of View)

It took a moment for them to both recover from their shock, but when they did Triton turned to Percy. "This," he replied calmly yet angrily, his trident now gone, pointing his finger at Percy. "Is your fault!"

"My fault!" Percy snapped back, angry that Triton was putting all the blame on him. "You should take at least half the blame! After all, you did participate in the fight!"

"Me? Take the blame?" Triton incredulously responded, arrogance in his voice. "Why would someone like me take the blame? I'm Poseidon's heir! A crown prince as you would put it!"

"Well you still helped cause the problem!" Percy retorted angrily back. "So you should should shoulder some of the blame!"

"And I'll just tell them it's your fault!" Triton sneered back.

But that was the last straw for Percy. No more Mr. Nice Guy! "Do you really think it's going to work putting all the blame on me?" Percy mirrored his brother, sneering also. "You're my teacher and are supposed to set the better example! We'll _**both**_ get blamed, whether or not you try to put all the blame on me!"

Triton raised his hand, about ready to slap Percy again when all of a sudden voices and footsteps were heard coming.

"Oh, shoot!" Percy muttered in panic. Hastily, attempting to use his new godly powers, he waved his hands and the thrones, though miraculously unharmed, were immediately back where they should have been. The rest of everything was also put back where it should have been and mended. Percy thought it was too bad that the same thing couldn't be done to Poseidon's trident. It was a weapon of power, and as such merely waving one's hands couldn't fix it.

"That's not how everything was before!" Triton snapped furiously, doing nothing. He kept his voice low as the footsteps were coming closer, as if he was aware of the deep trouble they were in.

"Then maybe you should help out!" Percy snapped back, tired of Triton having a bad attitude towards him. After all, _**he**_ was the one doing all the clean up.

Triton sighed. Waving his hands, he placed everything perfectly back and then he began muttering back.

The footsteps grew closer and they both glanced towards the exit, two doors. "Quick!" Percy whispered softly, picking up the trident and trying to stuff it behind some chairs. "Help me hide it!"

"It's not going to make a difference!" Triton quietly shouted back. "You're in trouble anyways!"

Percy would have said that both of them were in trouble but at that moment the footsteps were headed towards the door and Percy hissed, "Hide!"

Triton looked at him like he was crazy, but as he didn't budge Percy grabbed him and forced him to hide behind the thrones with him, the remains of Poseidon's trident there with them. Triton shoved Percy away as Percy made them hide and not a moment later the doors were opened and some merpeople swam inside and a couple of people trailing them.

Percy stayed still and silent, apprehensive of the "danger", and he kept thinking, 'Please leave! Please leave! Please leave!' Truth be told, Percy was surprised that Triton remained silent and chose not to come out and put all the blame on Percy, so Percy took that to mean that Triton knew that he was in just as much trouble.

"Hmm," the head merman responded. He was wearing a business suit on top, his fish tail sticking out at the end of his business shirt. "I could have sworn I heard and felt a commotion."

"Perhaps it was nothing," a pretty mermaid wearing a sun dress suggested, twisting her golden hair with her fingers. "Sometimes king Poseidon's anger causes the sea to become turbulent. It would not be the first time when the turbulence started in the throne room despite him not being there."

"But this felt different," the merman responded again. "Almost like it _**was**_ Lord Poseidon, but at the same time like it _**wasn't quite**_ Lord Poseidon."

The mermaid shrugged again, swimming to his side and wrapping her thin, pale arms around his elbow. "Then a member of the royal family, perhaps? It would have the same feeling."

"Perhaps," the merman tilted his head and considered. Then he shrugged and turned around to swim out. "Oh well, perhaps it's nothing to worry about. Nothing was broken after all." With that they left, the people following on their feet. At this Percy rolled his eyes and thought, 'If only you knew,' the irony striking him, but at the same time he was grateful that they didn't seem to notice anything wrong.

The moment they left and the doors were closed, Percy and Triton looked at each other, both of them somewhat alarmed, but trying to contain it because they didn't want the other to know they were afraid. It had been a mere miracle that they hadn't noticed the missing trident, but then again they probably thought Poseidon had taken it with him.

Percy and Triton got out from behind the throne chairs. As Percy looked, there was more than two, one that was clearly Triton's, one that was probably Tyson's, and another throne that was probably Percy's. Percy sucked in a deep breath, not worrying about it, and let some of the stress leave him. "Well that was close," he breathed out, somewhat relieved, but Triton merely walked up to him and spun him around, as he was facing away from his brother.

"That was close?" Triton echoed. "In case you haven't noticed, we are both dead! As you said! In case you have forgotten, symbols of authority and power are very precious and when they're missing, or _**broken**_ that is very bad, especially for the one who broke it! Surely your quest to retrieve the lighting bolt and helm of darkness have taught you by now how bad your situation is!"

"_**Our **_situation," Percy pointed out sharply. "And no, I haven't forgotten. I know that we're minced meat!" He wondered if Triton would understand the figures of speech he was using, but obviously Triton got the picture.

"Don't pin this on me!" Triton snapped back, shoving him away slightly. But Percy took a deep breath to prevent himself from hitting his brother and causing a worse fight.

"Before you get angry again, remember that those people noticed our little fight, and we almost got caught!" Percy pointed at the exit. "It was pure luck that got us out of it!"

"Well your still not out of it!" Triton whispered-yelled back, seemingly observing what was going on. The room was starting to boil again and both brothers took a deep breath to calm down.

Unfortunately, Percy had had it that Triton was refusing to acknowledge his hand in the fault. "Oh, I think you know just how much trouble you're in!" Percy hissed in a whisper. "After all, if you didn't, you wouldn't be hiding behind a chair with me!" With that he pointed to the thrones and Triton gripped his hands tightly together.

"I'm in no such trouble!" the god quickly denied. "And for the record, it's called a throne!"

"Whatever!" Percy waved his hands around. "You get the point!"

"The point?" Triton argued back, anger flashing briefly in his eyes and he took a step towards Percy. "The point is that... we... are in trouble!" He looked strained as he forced himself to say 'we', and Percy couldn't help but feel a bit of triumph that Triton had at least grudgingly owned up to some of it, though Triton would never acknowledge that he had owned up to some of it. "The point is that father's precious trident was broken, and when he finds out, we'll be in big trouble!"

"I know that!" Percy snapped back, frustration brewing around him, and as the water bubbled again he took a deep breath to keep his new powers in check.

"This isn't something light, Perseus!" Triton shook the younger god and for the first time Percy noticed some panic in his brother. Percy didn't like his brother using his full name, but he was willing to show a bit of mercy and forgiveness when he saw some fear in his brother's eyes that Triton was trying to conceal. "This is serious! You just don't go around breaking the symbols of the big three's power! This is enough to get us exiled! Shamed! Publicly shamed!"

Percy paled at this, and as he thought on it, he wouldn't fancy getting exiled right after he became a god. But suddenly the cogs in Percy's brain were turning and he could have sworn that he had an Annabeth moment. Silently, he thanked Annabeth for allowing him to date her and for allowing her to influence him.

Percy stepped back and turned away, raising one finger in the air, or water rather, as he voiced his thoughts. "But... what if they didn't know about it?" He turned to look at his brother and noticed that Triton rolled his eyes.

"It's too big to miss, Percy! Father's trident is shattered. How are they _**not**_ going to notice that?" He waved his hands to the thrones where the remains of Poseidon's trident were currently stuffed, out of sight to any onlooker.

"But... what if we got it fixed?" Percy suggested, trying to give Triton some hope.

Once again Triton rolled his eyes, folding his arms. "Anyone fixing father's trident would be obliged to tell him because he's the king of the sea."

"Not if we bribe them!" Percy suggested. "Make them swear on the river Styx not to say anything."

At this Triton stared at Percy in shock, but for the first time there was hope in his eyes. "That... might work," he mulled over the suggestion in thought. "If we paid them enough, they might stay quiet... But something like this would require special attention and care. Not everyone could do it." With that his attention snapped back to Percy and he growled. "But you're paying for half of it!"

"Agreed," Percy acknowledged. He wasn't going to be like his brother and refuse to admit his faults.

Once again Triton was thinking things carefully over, going over the details. "As to who would have the skills to do this..." he muttered to himself, arms folded, pacing around. "I don't know who would be able to do this... And then there's the problem of explaining father's missing trident..."

While Percy watched this he sighed, frustrated with his brother. "Everyone will probably assume that father took it with him to Olympus," Percy pointed out and Triton stopped pacing to stare at him. "As long as we have it fixed to where it's unnoticeable that it was ever broken and back before father gets here, no one will notice or ask questions. Everyone else will assume that father took it with him, and father will assume that it never left the palace to begin with. As long as we don't say anything or hint anything, and we bribe the fixers to swear on the river Styx to say nothing, we have nothing to worry about!'

And for once Triton was in agreement. For once he was in no mood to argue, and Percy was amazed that Triton was actually working with him. "Then that only leaves the problems of how to smuggle it out of the palace and back into the palace, as well as who will fix it." His fingers rubbed his chin as he thought on this and an irritated Percy rolled his eyes, pointing out the obvious.

"It doesn't have to leave the palace!" Percy pointed out. "We can have some of the cyclops fix it! After all, they have to be good enough if Lord Zeus assumed that they could make copies of his lighting bolt!"

Once more, tension built in the water as Triton hissed, "The cyclops? Percy? Are you insane? They're loyal to father and will most certainly tell him!"

"Not if we bribe them!" Percy argued back. "And do you have a better idea?"

Triton was immediately hesitant, though still wary of Percy's suggestion. "No," he finally admitted.

"Then it's settled!" Percy announced. "We take it to them to get it fixed." With that he headed towards the exit and turned back, saying, "Wait here!"

"And where do you think you're going?" Triton called out in outrage eyes narrowed as if he anticipated Percy abandoning him and leaving the problem all to him.

Percy stopped and turned around, arms folded. "I'm going to my room to find a bag to put the trident in. After all, we wouldn't want to cart it through the palace in it's current state for everyone to see, now would we?" When Triton rolled his eyes in acknowledgment, Percy turned around and sighed in stress. "Just wait here. I'll be back."

"And why do I have to wait here?" Triton's temper almost managed to get the better of him. Ultimately, he seemed upset that Percy was telling him what to do.

But Percy began walking away, only calling out, "To guard it and make sure no one comes in here and notices anything."

And with that he left.

(Percy Point of View)

Percy was on extra alert as he slowly made his way to his room. The palace was huge, that was for sure, and when he was a demigod he used to get lost. But when he became a god for some reason he didn't have that same issue anymore. He seemed to be able to navigate his way without many problems.

But he was still wary and cautious, doing his best to act naturally, trying to act as though nothing had happened. And to his surprise he still made it to his room, passing guards of the palace, who acted like nothing had happened. No one stopped and asked him what he was doing, why he wasn't in his lessons with Triton, but now that he thought on that it was probably because he was now a god.

And when Percy made it, he was relieved. To see his room in the palace, some of his very few belongings occupying shelves made of coral and other things, and he noticed a picture of him and his friends at a café in New York six months ago. In that photograph his friends had already become gods and goddesses, but they were still enjoying the privileges of being a mortal.

Also in the picture, beside Nico di Angelo, was his girlfriend. Percy had met her first and he had been the one to introduce Nico to her, but when they met, sparks flew. Despite the fact that she was a several thousand year old demigod, the two got along great, almost as if they had known each other their whole lives. They were clearly a match. They worked so well together.

Nico's girlfriend (whom Percy knew for about six months longer) was a demigod as well, but she was a Egyptian demigod. Carter Kane had introduced her to Percy. In fact, she was a Princess from ancient Egypt and still maintained that right and status.

At first Percy had kept his Egyptian friends a secret, but slowly, after secretly revealing his encounter with Carter Kane to his friends, his Greek and Roman friends had come to mingle with his Egyptian friends as well. Ultimately, Percy didn't think that being introduced to the Egyptian world was a bad thing, but it still confused him much, having two sets of "mythology" in his head at all times.

But they had done their best to keep their Egyptian friends from the knowledge of the gods. In fact, when the rumors finally began to spread about Nico having a girlfriend and the poor boy had been forced to confirm it, they had intentionally left out the part where Lana was an immortal Egyptian demigod. They had also especially purposefully left out that she was the child of Anubis and was linked to the afterlife (which is probably why she and Nico got along great, the two of them being children of death). Indeed, it had been awkward for Nico when Hades had insisted that he introduce him to his girlfriend.

Percy wasn't sure how Hades would react if he ever found out Lana's true identity. Hades would probably freak, that was for sure. The Greek/Roman gods didn't necessarily get along great with the Egyptian gods, from what he understood at least. He'd tried asking his father about it once without hinting that he knew about the Egyptian gods being real (let alone by saying that he'd met quite a number of them) by asking if since the Greek/Roman gods were real if the gods of the other cultures were real to.

Poseidon had been hesitant and had skirted around the topic before finally admitting it, and Percy got the hint that what he had asked was taboo. He then proceeded to ask if the Greek/Roman gods had rivalry with the gods of other cultures (note he said rivalry instead of enemy) and once again his father had tried to skirt the topic before finally giving him an answer (which took longer to get him to give an answer this time). He mentioned that there were a few cultures whose gods they were rivals with, naming a few, and unfortunately the Egyptians were included.

Lana had an easier time though. She was Setesh's favorite granddaughter, and Setesh, at least as of lately, had a lot of sway amongst the Egyptian gods and goddesses. All Lana had to do was bat those pretty eyelids of hers and she could get the Egyptian court to do whatever she wanted. Lana also had a lot of sway amongst the Egyptian court. Because of this, when Percy had first met her he had labeled her a spoiled brat, but only later, when she had saved him from Setesh's wrath by batting those pretty eyelids of hers and by whining for his release (long story), only then did he realize that she was well aware of how much she was favored in the Egyptian court, so she would use that to her advantage. She was a manipulator, and that was one of the ways she manipulated others to get what she wanted.

As Percy looked at the picture, he couldn't help but feel a little homesick for his old life, and he wanted nothing more than to weep and mourn his new existence. His friends didn't seem to have a problem with it, but he did. He still longed for the mortal life and the traits that came with it, even though he couldn't have it.

He sighed, putting down the picture he had picked up and proceeded to scour his room for a bag to put the trident in. 'There has to be something here that I can use,' Percy thought to himself, ready to turn his room into a living minefield if that's what it took to find what he was looking for.

And not a moment too soon he found a random burlap sack from the moral world to put the trident in. Triumphant and grinning, he held his prize up, only to be startled by a voice seemingly from nowhere saying, "What are you doing?"

Percy spun around and immediately saw an iris message staring at him in the face. There Annabeth was, watching him curiously.

"Uh," Percy stuttered not sure what to say and not wanting to act suspicious. "How long have you been watching me for?"

Annabeth snorted. "When the iris message opened up, you were holding that random sack like it was some prize," the girl responded, but a curious gleam got in her eyes soon after and Percy was immediately alarmed. When Annabeth got curious, that was never good, especially if you were trying to hide something, whether from her or from everyone in general. 'Oh no,' Percy thought in exasperation. 'Please don't ask! Please don't ask!' Annabeth would be able to tell if he was lying.

"So," he began awkwardly, hiding the burlap sack behind him and doing his best to act normal. "What are you calling for?"

Annabeth gazed at him a moment longer with curiosity before she shook her head as if saying, "Boys!" and then she responded, "What, can't a girl call her boyfriend every once in a while?"

This caused Percy to smile, and some of the tension left him, but he was also aware that he was leaving Triton hanging (which he probably didn't appreciate) and that he would have to get back to him soon. And he would have to do this without hinting anything to Annabeth. That meant that he was somehow going to have to find a way out of this conversation without making Annabeth mad thinking that he didn't want to talk, without hinting that anything was wrong, and without seeming rude.

"Yeah!" Percy did his best to sound cheerful, but he was well aware of the time constraints. "You can call me!"

As Annabeth smiled at this Percy began running plans through his mind on how to get out of this. "I heard you became a god," Annabeth looked at him observantly, concern in her eyes.

"Uh, yes, I did," Percy was concerned, but suddenly aware of a way out of this, but the only problem was how would he explain that he was missing from lessons? A sudden idea came to him and he decided to try it. "I was... in the middle of lessons actually. Triton can be a harsh teacher, so I needed to have a brief break."

"Oh," Annabeth raised her eyebrows, definitely interested in this. "So, why isn't your father teaching you?"

"Long explanation," Percy replied, trying to hint that he needed to go. "And I'm not sure I have time for it."

"And how does this relate to a burlap sack?" Annabeth questioned.

The moment Annabeth asked this question he knew he was doomed. 'Shoot!' he thought. 'How am I supposed to reply to that?'

He didn't know where his sudden ingenuity came from. He didn't know where his sudden confidence and brilliance came from. All he knew was that he had to go with the flow of this sudden spark of idea or he would be dead meat. "He-he," he chuckled nervously. "You saw that didn't you?"

When Annabeth nodded her head Percy knew that he would have only one chance to lead her train of thought a different way. "Well," Percy began and he mentally wanted to slap himself for lying to his beautiful goddess girlfriend. Now that he thought on it, Athena would hate him for it for the rest of eternity if she ever found out. 'So she better not find out,' he thought to himself. "You promise not to say anything?"

Annabeth nodded. "Well," Percy began, hating the lying every bit. "Triton is sort of... tough on me.. and truth be told I hate him." The young boy looked Annabeth right in the eyes when he said this. "He's been rough on me and I thought payback would be kind of nice. You know, knock him out, stuff him in a bag, ship him to Puerto Rico for a little bit as a joke!"

"_**Percy**_!" Annabeth immediately scolded him, and Percy silently thanked whoever was out there that Annabeth had believed it. Then again, she had heard his frustrations time after time again when he had relayed how Triton had reacted to him each time he came to Atlantis. What he said was probably believable. And he had indeed let his feelings of frustrations with Triton out in the conversation.

Another part of his mind wandered, making a mental note to remember that suggestion if Triton kept being mean to him. He could just see it. He was filling out one of those shipping forms that Hermes had everyone fill out, his brother stuffed in the bag unconscious, the drachmas being put in a special bag for Hermes, and POOF! Triton was gone. When he woke up and manged to find his way out of an enchanted bag that was designed to keep him in there he imagined his brother upon seeing where he was yelling, "Peeeeeerrrrrrrrrcccccccccyyyyyyy!"

Annabeth shook her head, scolding him. "That is not a way to make friends, Percy! And that's not a way to get along with him!"

"I know," Percy began, using his own feelings to make it believable. "But he just frustrates me sometimes! I've been nice to him, and he wont be nice back!"

A sigh was heard and Annabeth shook her head. "Now what?"

The boy sighed himself and he turned back to her. "Now I have to go back," he grumbled. He pointed one finger at her and told her, "But don't think I'm going to forget the idea. I swear on the river Styx (thunder booming) that I won't do it now, but if he ever does anything that really just gets on my nerves in the future, I won't spare him such a fate!"

"Percy, Percy," Annabeth moaned in frustration. Then she added, "As long as you keep your promise, I'll leave you be!" She glared at him before swishing through the rainbow on her end and she was gone.

Part of Percy couldn't help but rejoice. 'Yes!' he thought triumphantly. 'I got rid of her!' But the other part of him regretted everything about it. He hoped that he hadn't offended her, but he also hoped that he hadn't made a mistake that would make her watch him closely for a little while, especially when he didn't need to be watched so closely at the minute with what he needed to do!

'I guess I'd better get going,' Percy thought, and taking the bag and stuffing it in his pocket while thinking of shipping Triton off in such a matter (but no intention of doing it, at least not right now) he headed back to his brother.

(Percy Point of View)

Triton was pacing back and forth by the time Percy returned. When Percy swam in Triton whipped around to face him. He immediately swam over and stood right in front of him, though Percy got the feeling that Triton wanted to grab him around the throat and strangle him. As Triton glanced back at the doors to make sure they were closed, he whispered-yelled, "What took you so long?"

"Uh," Percy responded, not quite sure how to respond and not get yelled at at the same time. "My girlfriend called."

"And you just had to take the call?" Triton sarcastically responded, folding his arms in disapproval. "Especially when we're on time constraints?"

"Yes," came the furious response back as Percy inched closer. "I did. Annabeth, my girlfriend, just happens to be a daughter of Athena, and may I remind you how observant they are?" Triton rolled his eyes at this and Percy resisted the urge to slap him on the face, or better yet, ship him to Puerto Rico as he had imagined. That one would have to wait, for in order for _**him**_ to get out of this, he unfortunately had to have Triton's help. "I had to find a way out of the conversation without her getting suspicious. I had to be very careful."

When a brief sigh escaped Triton and he seemed worn out and exasperated, Percy knew that the worst was over. "Let's just get this over with," Triton grumbled and he and Percy went behind the thrones. Percy brought out the burlap sack and they both began stuffing the trident in it.

The trip to the forges made both of them nervous and Percy was thankful that Tyson was at Camp Half Blood. It wasn't that he didn't like Tyson, it was, well, Tyson had a big mouth, to put it nicely. He wouldn't be able to keep the secret. In fact if Tyson were here they may as well ditch the plan out the window. But thankfully he wasn't.

Triton led the way, he knowing the palace the best. They would have gotten there sooner except people in the palace kept stopping them, wanting to talk to them. Percy notice that Triton did his best to act polite and like he normally did, despite the fact that they needed to get to the forge before it closed for the day. After all, even Triton knew that they couldn't act suspicious. Even though Triton was arrogant, he wasn't stupid.

Finally they made it there to see the cyclops cleaning up for the day. Triton forced the bag last minute into his hand and pushed Percy into the forge. "You do it," he whispered to the boy, outside in the hall, not seen by the cyclops. If Percy knew that Triton wasn't a coward he would have thought that his actions were otherwise, but instead his brother seemed to be keeping watch.

"Why me?" Percy mouthed back, almost wanting the watch keeping job.

"Because it was your idea!" Triton mouthed more than whispered back. "Besides, someone has to keep watch to make sure no one comes in here unannounced."

Percy sighed and walked in. The moment Percy walked in the cyclops stood on their feet and bowed to him, making Percy feel uncomfortable. 'That's going to take some getting used to,' Percy thought back. But what made him more uncomfortable was that there were more cyclops in the forge than he had anticipated. There were at least a half dozen more than the four who normally worked in this small forge (they had many forges in the palace). Triton had wisely picked the smallest forge, the one who specialized in harder to make things, and as it was normally a small group he hadn't been anticipating the extra six cyclops.

"Lord Perseus," the lead cyclops greeted him respectfully. They were well aware of his new status, (they'd never called him 'lord' when he visited the forges before) but then again he was different and they probably sensed it. That, and the rumors had been spread before his arrival so they would have been anticipating it. "What brings you here?"

Percy hesitated for a moment, wondering how to go about this in the best manner before saying, "Um, I need a favor actually. And it needs to remain a secret."

"What kind of favor?" the cyclops asked. He was interested and Percy hoped he could use that to his advantage. "Something made for your girlfriend perhaps?"

"Um, no actually," Percy replied awkwardly, wondering how on earth they knew about his girlfriend. Then again, as his father had said, secrets were hard to keep in the world of the gods. 'Which is going to make this even harder,' Percy thought, but he tried not to think about that. That and the rumors had probably started when he and Annabeth had started dating as demigods. But now that they were gods Percy could see that the cyclops were anticipating another lady of the sea, another princess, aka his marriage to Annabeth that everybody was predicting. That almost made Percy blush from the thought. He was nowhere near ready for marriage.

As Percy was pulled out of his thoughts he was brought back to the task at hand and he told them, "It's actually something that I need you to swear on the river Styx that you will say nothing about it and will keep it secret from _**everyone**_, and that you will not even so much as hint about it, then I tell you. I also need you to swear that it will not come to the attention of _**anyone**_. It also needs to be done by a specific deadline. It needs to be done in quiet and secret to where no one will find out about it, and everyone present needs to enter into this agreement."

The cyclops frowned as he said this and Percy's hopes immediately dropped. But hey, he was desperate! "I'm not sure that we can agree to those terms," the lead cyclops started. "Those are hard terms to keep, let alone agree to. After all," and he stared back at his cyclops comrades that were watching everything. "Secrets are hard to keep in the sea. That, and to keep it secret we would have to secretly operate the forges at night when no one is around. That is not in our pay."

"And we will pay you extra for it," Percy reassured them, hoping to get a yes.

"But still," the cyclops sounded. "To agree to terms before knowing what the problem is..."

"Aw, come on!" Percy lightly tried to play back, hoping to get them a bit more light hearted about the situation in hopes that they would agree. "I'm the son of Poseidon! Won't you do something for a son of Poseidon?"

Once again the cyclops frowned. "With respect, Lord Perseus, it has nothing to do with whether or not you are a son of Lord Poseidon. It's just that we don't want to cause any trouble for anyone else, especially any of the other gods outside of the sea. After the lightning bolt incident Lord Poseidon decreed that anyone working in the forges had to report exactly what they were working on when work was done for anyone else."

"Even for someone of his own family?" Percy blurted out. "What about family gifts? How are those done?"

For once, the cyclops grinned. "Well that one is easy. We just write down "gift" in the report. Lord Poseidon doesn't expect us to report it until the gift is actually given. What kind of gift are you wanting us to make?"

"Uh, report?" Percy asked nervously, not sure about his plan now. "Um, it's not actually a gift, and I was kind of hoping it would be off the record."

"Well, sorry," the cyclops reported. "No can do."

"It's a repair," Percy dared to venture further. "A repair we'd rather have off records."

"We?" the cyclops asked and all the cyclops gazed at Percy in confusion. They looked around and didn't see Lord Triton as he was guarding the hallway, but no doubt listening, so Percy could understand how they could be confused as they wouldn't see anyone else there. Percy was sure, though, that Triton wouldn't have appreciated the "we" part of it, even though it was true.

"Yes, we," Percy confirmed.

"Well," the lead cyclops murmured, thinking aloud. "I might be able to do it off record, but I'll have to ask Lord Poseidon personally if that's okay..."

"NO!" Percy immediately shouted, almost in panic and this attracted the attention of the other cyclops, and unfortunately their curiosity. "It can't come to father's attention."

"Then perhaps Queen Amphitrite," the cyclops murmured in thought again.

"It can't come to her attention either!" Percy urged them, nervous now.

At this the cyclops were looking at him suspiciously. "And why, Lord Perseus, would you want to keep this from them?"

"Please?" Percy asked. "Pretty please with sugar on top? I'll pay you extra! I promise!"

But the cyclops shook his head. "I'm sorry, no can do! Like I said, I have orders from King Poseidon personally."

At this moment, Triton conveniently chose to step in and intervene in the situation. Percy glared in alarm that he had left his station in the hallway and Triton glared back, indicating that now was not the time to argue. The cyclops eyed them in confusion and curiosity, wondering why on earth the brothers who couldn't seem to get along were suddenly in on something, and Triton announced, "What about me? Am I exempt from the rules?"

"Um, I'm sorry, Lord Triton, but no, you aren't exempt from the rules," the cyclops announced nervously, especially since two gods were in on it. Triton scowled at this, though Percy wondered why on earth his brother would think that he was exempt and above the rules on this. Though Percy wondered if this was because of his arrogant side.

"Well," Triton responded. "Why not? You've known me for a while, Ka'ell. Why won't you do _**me**_ a favor? Do you not trust me?"

"It has nothing to do with trust," Ka'ell responded, though he was somewhat confident again. "It's just... the rules... you know, so that no one plots anything behind your father's nose, especially to cause trouble with other gods such as Lord Zeus. That's why the rules are there."

"And why would you think that I would be plotting something?" Triton asked, this time with a steely edge to his voice, causing some of the cyclops to flinch, all except for Ka'ell that is.

"We never said that, Lord Triton!" Ka'ell exclaimed. "But in all honesty, I cannot swear anything on the river Styx until I know what this is about! It is your father's rules!"

Triton rolled his eyes in exasperation, putting a hand to his forehead and he ordered Percy, "Show them."

"But!" Percy exclaimed somewhat alarmed, especially since the cyclops hadn't sworn on the river Styx yet. Though as Triton glared at him Percy knew better than to argue. After all, Triton had known Ka'ell and the others for far longer and he knew how they would most likely react. Most likely being the key word. If Triton thought that the risk they had to take was worth it then Percy had no choice but to trust him.

Sighing in frustration Percy brought the bag to a table somewhere in the middle which was unfortunately where every cyclops could see and Percy brought the broken pieces of the trident out carefully, not wanting to damage it more, almost afraid that it was more frail now.

Immediately, when the cyclops saw it their eyes widened and they burst out laughing at which Percy and Triton both went pale and blushed in embarrassment. The cyclops laughed a little more and Ka'ell, whose mouth was wide with laughter humorously announced, "Well, aren't the two of you in so much trouble!" They immediately laughed again and Percy wanted to hide his head in shame.

Finally, Triton had had enough of their laughter at his expense and he folded his arms, demanding, "Well? Will you do it? Will you fix it?"

The cyclops laughed lightly again and Ka'ell announced, "Sure, we'll fix it." Percy was about to sigh in relief until he heard the next part. "But that doesn't mean that we're going to keep it a secret!"

"Yeah!" Another cyclops laughed and glanced mischievously at his fellows, especially Ka'ell as they silently exchanged a plot together against the two brothers. "And we'll have to tell King Poseidon about his missing and broken trident!" They burst into another round of laughter and Percy was sure that he had to do something as Triton was now clenching his fists in anger.

"We'll pay you extra!" Percy shouted, stopping the laughter. "As we said, as long as you can fix it to where it was as if it were never broken, and you'll have it done well _**before**_ father comes back, and you'll swear on the river Styx everything I said, we'll pay you extra!"

This got a few excited and calculating glances around the room and Ka'ell rubbed his palms together before asking almost greedily, "How _**much**_ extra?"

"Double the pay!" Percy immediately responded.

"And three hundred drachma as extra!" Triton burst in. "But it most especially cannot come to mother and father's attention."

"Double pay and three hundred drachma to split?" the cyclops responded unimpressed. "That's it?"

"Plus we'll pay for any parts you need to fix it!" Percy announced, and though the cyclops were confused at his choice of words for a minute they seemed to get it in the end.

But to Percy's frustrations they frowned. "That's not going to cut it," Ka'ell frowned once more.

Percy winced, knowing that he was going to have to bargain higher. "Three hundred drachma per worker," Percy announced. "Plus double pay." Triton glared at him for this offer but Percy glared back, almost saying, 'You got a better idea?'

The lead cyclops snorted, clearly not impressed. "No deal."

Triton rolled his eyes and began his offer then. "We'll pay for anything that is needed in the repairs. You'll get double pay and five hundred drachma each."

"Still no deal," the lead cyclops announced and Triton hissed in exasperation.

"Triple pay then!" Percy announced. "With three hundred drachma per worker! We pay for anything you need to fix it and you swear on the river Styx everything I mentioned. It cannot reach mom and dad's ears and it cannot reach the ears of the other cyclops in the forges even. It has to be completed _**well before **_father comes back. And officially, the work was never done here!"

However Ka'ell seemed unimpressed with this offer also. 'Man,' Percy thought. 'They're trying to run us dry!'

"No deal," Ka'ell responded in a bored attitude. "You'll have to take your offer somewhere else."

"But then you'll just take what happened to mom and dad!" Percy protested.

"Yes, and?"

"And you're the only ones who can fix it!" Percy continued, hoping that they would reconsider his offer.

"Then you'll just have to deal with it!" Ka'ell evilly smiled back, and at that moment Percy knew they were doomed.

At this Triton must have had it for he asked in exasperation, "What will it take for you to agree to our terms? How much pay will it take?"

This got the cyclops' excitement renewed and Ka'ell rubbed his hands together before greedily asking, "We get to pitch how much pay we get?"

"Apparently so," Triton grumbled under his breath but both he and Percy knew that they had no choice if they wanted it to stay quiet.

"Well then," Ka'ell announced and he and his buddies gathered together. After a few tense moments for both Percy and Triton, Ka'ell came back and announced, "Quadruple the pay and _**one thousand**_ drachmas per worker, then we'll agree to your terms." He smiled widely and Percy stared at him stunned.

With this statement Triton was also stunned and then he stared at them in outrage before questioning in fury, "Quadruple the pay?! One thousand drachma per?!"

"Actually," one of the cyclops workers told Ka'ell. "I thought we agreed that it was _**two thousand**_ not _**one thousand**_ drachma per worker and then quadruple the pay."

"Yeah," another cyclops responded and Triton's eyes widened.

"Two thousand?!" Triton asked, paling almost. "Two thousand per worker?!"

"Yes," Ka'ell replied back to his worker, playing along. "We did agree on that number, didn't we? Or was it higher?" And the lead cyclops rubbed his chin, acting as if he was thinking it was higher. "Maybe it was higher!"

"Higher?!" Percy almost squeaked. 'Yup, that's it!' he thought. 'They're trying to run us dry!'

"Yeah, you're right!" the lead cyclops announced, pointing a finger briefly at Percy. "It was higher." When the lead cyclops said this Triton immediately glared at Percy but Percy glared back and shrugged as if saying, "What?"

"I think it was twenty five hundred," Ka'ell replied, in thinking mode again.

"No, it was three thousand!" another cyclops shouted out, and Ka'ell looked like he was considering this as a possibility.

"No! Four thousand!"

"No! Five thousand!"

"Five thousand!" Triton exclaimed, looking almost like he would faint, but since he was a god this was impossible.

The cyclops kept suggesting higher and higher numbers until finally another cyclops yelled, "Aw, come on! Cut them a break!"

"A break," Ka'ell smiled and rubbed his hands together. "Ready to make a deal?"

"Yes," Triton replied softly, pale already, expecting the worst.

Ka'ell smiled. "All right then," and he rubbed his hands together again. "Quadruple the pay and four thousand drachma each. Then we'll agree to all of your demands, but if you want it on the river Styx it will be quadruple the pay and five thousand drachma each. And you must swear on the river Styx to pay it and for anything needed to make the repairs."

Both Triton and Percy were pale at this but they both knew that they would have no choice if they wanted it done, let alone done quietly. "Very well," Triton softly replied, much whiter than a polar bear. "Quadruple the pay and five thousand per worker, plus what is needed with repairs if everyone here swears on the river Styx to everything Percy and I have ever asked of you."

"All right," Ka'ell responded, rubbing his hands together. "It's a deal then! We swear on the river Styx to all the demands you have ever mentioned here!" With that the others swore the exact same on the river Styx also and a boom was heard.

"And we swear on the river Styx to pay you and to pay for the things needed to make the repairs," Triton agreed, still pale.

"I swear also on the river Styx to the same things as Lord Triton," Percy agreed, his own face white and he was sure he was dead. He wasn't sure how he was going to come up with the money. He was sure Triton could but how could he? But as he promised, the thunder boomed again.

"Okay then," Ka'ell nodded. And then he smiled that mischievous smile at them. "By the way, you're going to have to pay for that up front!" he grinned, rubbing his hands together and Percy's jaw dropped.

"Up front!" Percy demanded and it was his turn to be outraged. "How do we know that you won't back out on any part of the deal after we pay you?" he demanded.

Triton nodded once, agreeing with his brother, glaring the cyclops.

"Yes," Ka'ell responded, lightly, mischievously. "Good point. Tell you what, you pay all that up front as an insurance and then you swear on the river Styx to pay an extra one thousand drachma per worker as the rest of the payment _**after **_the work is finished! Plus anything needed to make the repairs!"

Percy's jaw dropped again at their insolence and Triton's hands balled into fists. "Why you little-" Triton growled not finishing the statement as he saw the eyebrows of the cyclops go up. "Fine!" he sighed. "If you also swear on the river Styx to that arrangement then I swear on the river Styx to the arrangement also!"

"And I swear on the river Styx to the same agreement also," Percy growled, angry that they were taking advantage of him and his brother, well mainly angry that they were taking advantage of him. He was still mad at his brother a bit for the fight and his behavior. Thunder boomed on the arrangement.

"And we swear to the agreement on the river Styx also," Ka'ell added, rubbing his hands together. The other cyclops made the same promise and thunder boomed again.

Triton nodded and then turned to Percy. "Wait here," he ordered before turning around to leave.

"What do you mean, wait here?" Percy asked, wanting an explanation and Triton sighed before responding, "I know the cyclops. You have to stay here as insurance that we will pay or else they will back out on their end of the deal."

"But where are you going?" Percy demanded and it was his turn to assume that his brother was going to leave the whole problem to him.

Fortunately Triton had never had that in mind. "I'm going to my account to draw the money out to pay for it up front. All the family has an account with money set aside for various expenses, including money that we can spend freely. But seeing as your new, though an account is set aside for you, it's probably not filled up yet, so you'll have to pay me back later."

This caught Percy's alarm. While it was cool that he had an account now, he wondered who was keeping track of that account. The palace had plenty of servants and Percy highly doubted that Triton did his own book keeping, but he could be wrong. "Um," Percy began, somewhat nervously. "Who else knows about these accounts?" he asked his brother and Triton sighed in frustration.

"Does it matter?" Triton snapped back, already irritated.

"Yes," Percy snapped back. "Yes it does matter. Because if anyone else knows about these accounts, say _**mom and dad**_, then we can kiss our little secret goodbye! You can't just withdraw all the money from your account and it not go noticed! People will start asking questions! The whole point of this is to not draw attention and so that no one will notice it. I don't know if you notice, but that is a big red flag!"

"Well we don't have a choice!" Triton snapped. Then he took a deep breath, calming himself down. "We'll just have to find a way to replenish our accounts later. Besides, mother isn't due to check the balance to our accounts for another week and half."

"A week and a half!" Percy stunningly replied. "That's not enough time to replenish the accounts!"

"It will have to be!" Triton snapped. "We'll have to find a way!"

"And no one else knows about these accounts and has anything to do with it?" Percy cautiously asked again. "Like, when you withdraw the money, won't the people taking the money out ask why you're withdrawing that much?"

But to his surprised Triton rolled his eyes. "If you're thinking of what goes on in the mortal world, it doesn't work like that. There are no "banks" as you call them, where people withdraw their money. So no, no one will notice when I withdraw the money because no one will be around." And this left Percy wondering how on earth Triton knew about mortal banks.

"Good," Percy sighed in relief. Triton was glaring at him, looking at him like he had a lot to learn. But the cyclops were also getting agitated. They had clearly heard the whole conversation since it was loud enough.

"Well?" one of the cyclops demanded. "Are you going or not?"

"We don't have all day!" another one pushed them.

Triton rolled his eyes and snapped, "Fine! I'm going!" With that he turned around after making sure that Percy would remain. "And don't think about double crossing us!" Triton warned the cyclops angrily, but Ka'ell merely laughed and smiled at them.

"Well then," Ka'ell grinned eagerly, holding a hand out and rubbing his fingers, looking directly at Triton. "Pay up!"

**Well, I must say that I had fun writing this chapter, especially when I came to the part about the cyclops, and most especially when I came to the part where they and the cyclops are bargaining together.**

**Please review! Reviewing is a courtesy!**

**Sincerely,**

**Firestar'sniece**


	3. Chapter 3: The Beginning of Cover Ups

**I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or Heroes of Olympus.**

Chapter Three: The Beginning of Lies and Cover Ups

(Percy Point of View)

Percy waited for what seemed like forever before Triton returned, the money in a several small bags (one for each cyclops) and Percy had no doubt that each bag was enchanted to hold the amount agreed upon.

The cyclops grinned widely when they each caught a bag and Ka'ell smirked, "Well, we love doing business with you! _**Absolutely**_ love doing business with you!" Triton clenched his fists in anger at this and Ka'ell laughed. The problem was, both of them knew that they couldn't do anything about it and that they were at the mercy of the cyclops.

"Yes," Triton replied steely. "I'm sure you do. Now if you don't mind my brother has some training that he needs to attend to." And with that he grabbed Percy's shoulder and yanked him out of the forge. They both stopped outside the forge, not going anywhere, leaning back and trying to get control of their frustrations before they went anywhere.

A brief sigh escaped Percy. He was leaning against the wall of the palace, head tilted back, eyes closed, trying desperately to envision a tropical paradise somewhere in the middle of nowhere. "Well, that went worse than expected," he muttered and Triton merely glared at him.

"It's Ka'ell, what do you expect?" Triton replied, as if expecting Percy to automatically know this. He glanced briefly at Percy, anger flashing in his eyes.

"And how was I supposed to know he'd be like that?" Percy pointed out. The anger began building in him again and he felt the sudden urge to ship him to Puerto Rico just like he envisioned not too long ago. But then he remembered his promise on the river Styx and he realized that he couldn't do it, at least not yet anyways. "I haven't been here that long, after all!"

"No kidding!" Triton sneered and Percy had to work very hard to keep his new powers in check. The water began boiling briefly again and it took a couple seconds for him to realize that he was the one doing it. Taking a big breath to calm himself down he thought once again on that tropical paradise. He had to make sure that his anger didn't get them into worse trouble.

"Well," Percy snapped back when he was sure his powers were under control, frustrated with his brother. "If you knew that they would be like that, then why did you take the trident to that particular forge to be fixed?"

To his surprise Triton merely frowned at this. "They were the best option and the only ones I knew that could fix such a thing," he admitted simply, honestly, and Percy was surprised at his response. For once there was no anger in his tone and for once he was given an explanation instead of being sneered at for not knowing the answer. After this Triton glanced at him and peeled himself away from the wall. "Come," he ordered. "We have some training to do."

With that Triton began walking away and Percy was surprised to see his brother a tad bit calmer. But then again after everything that had just occurred Triton probably didn't want more problems and was probably being more careful with his behavior and mannerisms towards Percy.

However training was the least of Percy's concerns. After all there were other things on his mind. "Wait," he called after his brother, catching up to him. When Triton turned and frowned at him Percy looked him in the eyes, searching to see how he would probably react, and then when Percy was sure he wouldn't be mocked he told him, "We've got to find a way to replenish the accounts, remember?"

When Triton rolled his eyes Percy bit back the urge to respond with something snide. "I told you, mother isn't due to check the accounts for a week and a half."

"But that doesn't give us very long," Percy pointed out. "The sooner we get started the better."

"And we can begin coming up with ways _**after**_ training," Triton firmly responded, almost like he was seeking to end the subject.

But this didn't ease Percy's concern and fears. "And how _**does**_ she check the balance?" he asked warily. "And how can you be so sure that she won't check the balance sooner with everything that has happened?"

It was almost hilarious to see Triton freeze with realization and when he eyed Percy with sudden concern and muttered, "Good point," Percy almost wanted to throw his fists in the air with triumph. Turning around he led the way out of the forges and through the corridors with Percy clueless and in tow.

"And where are we going?" Percy asked. His brother had changed to his merman form with two fish tails and Percy walked alongside him.

Triton didn't answer at first, but he led the way through the palace, through winding hallways and up several levels, past several guards, and finally they reached what appeared to be a courtyard. "So that the guards noticed us coming here," Triton explained and Percy understood. After all, everyone would assume that they were near the training courtyard, not wherever they were going.

Suddenly, Triton flashed away and he was back a moment later. Grabbing Percy before the young god could protest he flashed them both to a different room in the palace. It looked like an office, if a room made out of seaweed and coral could look like an office that is. There were several scrolls on a desk made of stone and many "bookshelves" with scrolls on them.

Percy watched Triton pull several scrolls out of a pile of scrolls carefully, making sure that they weren't disturbed so that he could put the scrolls back unnoticed that he had pulled out. "What are you doing?" Percy asked curiously as Triton opened the first scroll. It was blank.

But the older god merely glanced at him. "My mother does the book keeping," he merely replied and Percy took special notice that he didn't say "our" mother. When he pulled set the first scroll down and opened the other one Percy noticed Greek and roman numerals on it. It was definitely a scroll for budgeting.

And instantaneously a sudden curiosity seeped inside Percy. He was curious. "You don't do your own book keeping?" Percy wanted to know and Triton turned to him, an incredulous look on his face.

"No!" he responded, as if what Percy had asked was scandalous. "Why ever would I?"

At a shrug from Percy, Triton eyed his brother, curiosity in his eyes for the first time. "I do my own book keeping," Percy truthfully told him, wondering how much of his life he should give away. "I have a job, back in my mortal home anyways. I have to do my own book keeping and ensure I pay my own taxes, everything a regular mortal learns, or at least is supposed to learn."

"You have a job?" Triton asked in surprised, almost as if such a thing was a disgrace.

"Yes," Percy replied, shrugging like it's nothing. "Of course, I'm grateful that they're willing to work with me. They gave me leave when we used the mist to make it look like I had to leave for reasons of my own. They said they'd hold my spot. But yes, most mortals have a job. I was saving money to go to college."

"College," Triton murmured, a thoughtful expression on his face. "Why would you go to college when we'll be training you here?"

"For the experience," he exasperatingly replied, frustrated with his brother's lack of understanding. Why didn't anyone understand how he wanted to be mortal again even though that was an impossibility?

Triton looked at Percy as if he were crazy. Upon seeing this Percy was irritated and almost snapped before he calmed himself and replied, "You still didn't explain why we're here."

"Like you said," Triton replied nonchalantly. "To see if mother has done any early book keeping. And luckily she hasn't."

"At least not yet," Percy pointed out and Triton winced at that.

"Unfortunately there is no way we can prevent her if she does decide to do any early book keeping," he murmured softly.

But Percy wasn't so sure. "Maybe there is," he ventured, getting the cogs in his head turning again. At this Triton looked at him hopefully and Percy was thankful that Annabeth's intelligence and good sense was rubbing off on him. He gestured around the room and told Triton, "You see how messy and not in order everything is?"

Triton frowned, not quite sure where Percy was going with this. "Yes?" he replied, not seeing the point.

"Well," Percy began, grinning widely. "I'm guessing that I'm getting my organizational issues from father if I'm correct? That is unless it comes from my mom and it skipped a generation."

"And that helps us how?" Triton waved his hands, telling Percy to hurry up.

"Well, does father often... _**misplace**_ things?"

Triton frowned once more and eyed Percy suspiciously, seeing where his brother was going. "Yes, and mother always has a hard time finding things because of that." He narrowed his eyes at Percy before clutching the scrolls in his hand and saying in monotone, "You're wanting us to hide them, is that correct?"

Percy shrugged innocently. "Well, if father is anything like me, sometimes something goes missing because I accidentally touched it and didn't realize that I misplaced it. I didn't even remember holding it in my hand. Of course that was back when I was mortal..." he trailed off leaving Triton to catch the hint, knowing that he would.

To his surprise Triton nodded after thinking a bit. "The same thing does happen to father," he confirmed. "Sometimes he does loose things. And he does often go over the book keeping like mother does, particularly after she does the book keeping. And of course your scroll was made the last time she did the book keeping."

"So suppose we were to, say, hide it in this room somewhere else?" Percy grinned. "Mom and dad wouldn't be any wiser. For all mom knows, father's misplaced everything again, and for all father knows, he accidentally misplaced it."

"Yes," Triton replied, glancing down at the scrolls in his hand before moving over to a pile and then shoving their scrolls into Percy's hand rather rudely as he began to move scrolls in the pile. "And when we're done with everything all we have to do is make the scroll appear more obvious to where mother can find it again."

The elder god had finally finished moving the pile and when he motioned Percy to give the scrolls back Percy asked, "Won't that be a bit too obvious?"

But his brother merely rolled his eyes. "She rarely checks here, trust me." With that he once again motioned for Percy to hand over the scrolls again.

But when Percy shook his head and Triton looked almost furious Percy grinned and replied, "Two scrolls is way too obvious. May as well have _**all**_ the books go missing!"

Once again, Triton was struck by his ingenuity, and rolling his eyes at his grinning brother Triton went over and removed the scrolls for the entire family. Placing them in the pile, he motioned for Percy to do the same and all Percy could think was, 'Good thing they won't be doing any DNA tests on the scrolls, otherwise we would be busted.'

Triton covered the pile once more and then he proceeded to flash them out. They were back to where Triton had led them before he flashed them to the office. "Now onto training," he announced, and Percy nodded. "Mom will notice if we don't do any training. But when she sees that you haven't made very much progress today I guess I'll have to tell here that you're struggling a bit."

This comment made Percy a tad bit angry, but he had to admit that it was a good excuse. "Sounds fair," he grudgingly replied and Triton grinned that smirk at him.

"Well?" Triton snapped when Percy didn't move. "Go onto the courtyard."

Percy obliged. They were currently inside the palace and the courtyard was a large slab of rock outdoors surrounded by the walls of the palace on four sides. Coral grew up the side and Percy was awed at the place. He turned around to ask Triton what he was to do but he wasn't expecting to get almost hit by a wave of godly power. If he hadn't avoided it in time he might have been in pain. "Hey!" he yelled back at his brother, turning around and seeing that his brother now had his trident in his hand. "What was that for?!"

Percy wanted to groan. 'Why couldn't his trident have gotten broken instead?' he asked himself rather mournfully. Unfortunately, he had to admit to himself that that may have been an even worse situation. At least with father's trident broken he had help covering up what happened, but if Triton's was broken instead, well he was sure that would certainly have come to public attention.

Triton stepped onto the courtyard. "Today you will be learning to control your new powers better," Triton announced further. "Starting with combat."

Percy couldn't help but wonder if his brother merely wanted a rematch. But he folded his arms and, glaring at Triton, asked, "Didn't we do this earlier? After all, we wouldn't want to break anything in the courtyard."

But Triton merely rolled his eyes. "Father told me he didn't care if anything was broken in this courtyard. Besides, everything here is easier to fix than where we were...earlier."

But Percy sighed in exasperation. "Well, can't we do something else? After all, we did have a 'little fight' earlier. Isn't that combat training enough?"

Triton seemed to growl at his reference to the fight earlier and Percy's success, but instead he controlled himself and began circling Percy. "You did use some interesting techniques," he observed, still circling Percy. "Techniques that I have never seen before. However, you were using more physical combat than using your godly powers. Right now we will be focusing on improving your control over your godly powers, and using them to fight with. When I am done training you I want you to actually be able to do some _**damage**_ with them."

Percy raised an eyebrow. "So you're saying I _**wasn't**_ able to do some damage?" Percy ventured dangerously, wondering why on earth he had to have Triton as a teacher. "My physical techniques weren't _**good**_ enough?"

At this Triton made a move to attempt to strangle Percy again but seemed to gain control over himself at the last minute. His eyes flashed in anger and he finally drew a deep breath in before replying steadily in a bored manner, "It was a draw." Once more he began circling Percy again and Percy had to wonder if Triton didn't want to teach Percy seeing as if he improved in his skills he most certainly would be able to win in a fight against Triton.

"Father wants you to learn more about using your powers," Triton began to explain as he circled his younger brother, in a thinking mode. "As father's lieutenant you will be leading armies and you will be leading many into battle and as my younger brother, should I request it you will be leading armies into battle under my command. Believe it or not we both want you trained, and seeing as you have a lot of potential already it's best to train you now so that when war does come you will be able to help us conquer our enemies."

At this Percy couldn't help but be curious. His own brother wanted him trained? That and he had another question on his mind. "I thought that as heir you commanded the armies?" Percy asked and Triton stopped circling to look at him, standing right in front of him.

Triton seemed hesitant about answering this question for some reason and Percy couldn't help but wonder why. Triton stared at him for a little while before responding, "Their are different duties in the family, Perseus. As heir I have different responsibilities than you will have. Yes, the armies are under my command, but you are the general of the family. In the military mode, you are a general under my command and father and mother's command, but you have control over the armies. You answer directly to me and to my father for anything, and mother though she will rarely interfere as much as father and I will do. Outside of that you are on equal par with me as a prince. The only difference is that I am the heir of the kingdom and you are second to the throne after me. Should something happen to me you would be heir."

"And can I not request that I be skipped should something happen to you?" Percy asked hopefully. The idea of taking on a mantle of responsibility more than he already had to deal with did not appeal to him.

But Triton merely studied him carefully, almost surprised at his response. "No," he finally replied. "It doesn't work like that. Now that you're a god you are most certainly in line after me."

"Good thing that you, mom, and dad are immortal then," Percy replied, not liking his new life the more he learned about it.

Triton seemed to study him curiously for a minute, almost as if Percy weren't what he was expecting. "Tell me," he finally asked, watching him intently. "You were a leader back when you were a demigod. You helped unite the camps and were one of the leaders of the new camp Demigod. Why would you not want to be in line for a throne?"

"Well I didn't want to be a leader," Percy admitted back, looking his brother in the eyes. "But they were insistent. But there is also a difference between leadership in camp Demigod and being a leader amongst the gods. I didn't necessarily like being a demigod leader, and I most certainly don't want to be a leader amongst the gods."

Triton seemed to nod at this before considering him again. "You are odd, Perseus," he commented lightly, changing to his merman form and swimming away. "You have natural leadership skills and everyone naturally follows you, but you don't like being a leader. Very interesting."

"Do you like being a leader?" Percy dared to ask and Triton merely turned back, not responding.

"We have work to do," his brother finally responded and immediately he swam over and began explaining about godly power before giving a demonstration. Afterward he made Percy do what he did and made him repeat everything over and over until he was satisfied. They trained like this for a while before Triton finally allowed Percy a break.

It was during this time as Percy was sitting in a chair, his brother in a chair beside him that Percy was drawn back to their little adventure in the office. "Why don't you do your own book keeping?" Percy asked Triton suddenly and Triton turned back to him startled.

Triton turned away once more before shrugging. "I never have," he admitted. "I don't even know how. I only know what part I'm allowed to use and what part of the money I'm not allowed to use."

"And will I be able to do my own book keeping?" Percy asked.

Triton shrugged. "Maybe. But I don't know why you should."

"Because I know how and I'm used to it," Percy pointed out. Then he thought of an idea. "Well maybe I should teach you sometime," Percy offered but was surprised when Triton scoffed in derision.

"I'm father's heir! I don't need to learn such things!"

"Then why does mother do the book keeping?" Percy asked.

At this Triton must have felt that Percy had crossed a boundary for he glared at his younger brother and got up and walked away.

"Wait!" Percy called back and ran after him when his brother didn't stop. "We have to discuss what to do about replenishing the accounts!" he whispered-yelled when he was beside his brother and Triton turned to Percy.

"Well?" Triton demanded when he saw that his brother had an idea.

But Percy merely smiled. "Come with me!"

With that he attempted to flash them out.

(Amphitrite Point of View)

Amphitrite was wandering the halls heading towards her office. The day had been long for her. In the throne room she'd had to solve the various problems of the citizens in her kingdom, and when she felt the disturbance in the ocean and the use of godly power, she grew worried that Percy was having a hard time controlling his powers during his training session with Triton. But then it calmed down some, though it did spike occasionally.

But now that she had a new son she wanted him to feel apart of the family. So she was about ready to deposit his first amount of money into his account, but before she could she had to do the book keeping. Normally she would have waited to do it until a week and a half later, but seeing as they had a new member of the family she didn't want to wait, even if he didn't use it right away.

And so as the queen entered the office she sighed realizing that it was a mess like it always was. But she didn't have time to deal with that as she needed to get the scrolls out. Walking over to where she left it last time well before her husband had left to go to Olympus she rummaged through everything only to find the scrolls missing.

"Where is it?" she murmured allowed, frustrated with her husband's lack of organization of belongings. Sure, his kingdom was organized, but he always lacked a way of organizing his belongings.

She searched and searched and searched the office but to no avail. Ready to give up she left the room to go to hers in order to retrieve some drachma to call her husband with.

Queen Amphitrite didn't care if he was in a meeting on Olympus. As far as she was concerned, this was important. She couldn't believe he'd misplaced everything again! Especially something as important as this! How many times had he misplaced the scrolls they used to book keep?

On her way she passed a few servants and they greeted her politely. Some of them were interested in seeing Percy train but they informed her that Triton had told them not to as Percy needed to be able to concentrate. "And it's just as well," Amphitrite informed them. "The sooner he can learn to use his powers the better."

When she reached her room she searched for some spare drachma and found some. Sighing in relief she created a rainbow with the water and began the 'O Iris' chant. When she said her husband's name she immediately saw him in council, the council arguing slightly.

Changing her mind slightly she ended the session. She would just have to wait until later. So much for giving Percy his first money.

Poor Percy.

(A few minutes later)

(Triton Point of View)

Percy had been trying to flash them out of the ocean but to no avail. He tried and tried and tried but he couldn't quite figure it out.

Triton had gotten tired of Percy holding his shoulder to try to flash him out so he had shrugged him off and instead resorted to watching him in amusement. He knew very well what Percy was trying to do, and he had somewhat of a smirk on his face as he reminisced about the time he first tried to flash somewhere.

Meanwhile Percy was getting frustrated with his lack of ability to do so. As Triton saw his anger and frustration growing he noticed that the ocean began bubbling again (emotions are a lot more powerful with gods, and thus Percy had yet to learn to control his emotions). Sighing in exasperation and not wanting a new incident, especially after the breaking of their father's trident (Triton had learned to be more cautious, especially with Percy since then) Triton thought it best to intervene. He watched him make one last attempt before he voiced, "Where exactly are you trying to take us, Percy?"

To his relief Percy stopped his attempts and turned to face Triton. "Somewhere in New York," was his reply and Triton raised his eyebrows. Wasn't Percy the one who said he couldn't be around humans until he learned to gain control of his powers?

After shaking his head at his own brother's foolishness he walked closer. "I'm not sure father will approve of that," he informed the younger god making a mental note to keep better track of what Percy does in the future. Something told the older god that though Percy had good intentions he didn't always follow the established rules. Then again, as Triton thought on it, Percy did indeed have a history of this, and this was partly what made uncle Zeus want to make him a god.

As he pushed aside the angry thoughts that began boiling inside him when he thought about Percy being made a god he went over and sat in a chair. Percy had been a little red faced when he mentioned that father wouldn't approve and was for some reason watching him in interest then. "What?" Triton snapped at him as Percy continued to watch him.

The young boy shrugged, not quite deterred by his sudden sharpness. "I was trying to flash us to New York so that we could withdraw some money from my mortal account to help replenish what's in your account, actually."

Triton had to admit that he was impressed with Percy's selflessness, but as he thought on his father's strict instructions to him he couldn't help but frown. "As you pointed out, you're not allowed to leave the ocean," he informed the boy.

"Unless," Percy began, getting that thinking mode going again. Triton couldn't help but think, 'Oh no,' at this and as he saw Percy begin to rationalize things. "Unless you're with me. Then it will be okay, won't it?"

The older god had to sigh at Percy's insistent nature. "The rules are there because it could be dangerous for others if you are around them."

"Could," Percy emphasized. "But you'll be there right next to me in case anything goes wrong. And I'll be doing my best." He put on a begging face that Triton couldn't help but snicker at and when Percy said, "Ah, come on!" Triton burst out laughing, for the first time amused with his brother. A voice in the back of Triton's mind said, 'Maybe he's not so bad after all,' but Triton quickly pushed it aside.

"How else are we supposed to cover up what happened?" Percy whispered, looking around to make sure no one was watching, and when the boy seemed to sense that no one was around to listen he relaxed a little.

After eyeing the boy for a bit and trying to decide if it would indeed be safe to take him out, despite Percy informing Triton of their father's orders, he found that maybe it would be safe, only for a little bit though. And hey, no one had to know, right? "You do realize that if anyone comes at fault for this it will be me?" he suspiciously asked Percy, wanting to see what Percy's response would be.

But to his surprise his brother seemed to be noble. "And I'll take half the blame if anything goes wrong." This surprised Triton and he began to wonder even more if he had judged Percy a little too harshly at first. Maybe he didn't know his brother as well as he thought he did. He had never encountered someone who would do something so selfless for him before, except for his mother and occasionally his father that is. Maybe this is why his mother had come to accept him and adopt him. Maybe she had seen something in him that had impressed her.

"And you do realize that no one on Olympus accepts American currency?" Triton informed Percy, wondering what Percy would do with that information. Triton knew what to do. He knew that the currency could be exchanged for golden drachmas, but he wanted to see and gauge his brother's reaction. After all, his brother's plans had been pure genius so far. Maybe he wasn't a seaweed brain after all like the boy's girlfriend kept calling him.

However Percy seemed to jump to the same conclusion he had, which impressed Triton, for he responded, "It doesn't matter. It can be exchanged for golden drachma."

Triton almost smiled, but he didn't want Percy to see how impressed he was with him. After all, he wasn't supposed to like this illegitimate boy, even if his own mother the Queen had adopted him. He got up and walked over to Percy, gazing into his eyes briefly only to see honestly before he replied, "Very well. But I have to go with you seeing as I have to babysit you. I will take us there."

Percy smiled some but he shook his head, causing Triton to frown. "I've got to be able to learn to transport myself some time," he explained and Triton rolled his eyes.

"It's getting late in the mortal world," Triton firmly informed the boy. He hesitated before replying for he knew that Percy would hold him to this, "We can practice that some other time. Right now, tell me where we need to go and I'll take us there."

For a moment Percy looked like he was going to argue, then he closed his mouth and nodded. Giving Triton the location, Triton flashed them some distance away from the credit union. They were in an abandoned alleyway where no one could see them whether they were outside or inside buildings, and immediately he noticed Percy looking around, getting his bearings. The alleyway was formed by the backs of buildings facing them and in the distance a skyscraper could be seen, no doubt the place where the credit union was. Walls were on three sides of them, so facing forward was the only place where they could see the buildings in the distance. The skyscraper that Percy had told Triton about seemed about a couple of miles away, and Triton had no doubt that Percy was excited to see the familiar tall buildings that he had grown up with. In fact he was perhaps thinking about camp Demigod at this time.

Triton had flashed them here so that they could be out of sight to formulate a plan and so that he could have a few final words with Percy but Percy seemed to have other ideas. Percy began to walk in the direction of the credit union and the skyscrapers, attempting to get out of the alley, but before he could go two steps Triton held him back, a hand on his shoulder.

"What now?" Percy turned back to his brother, shaking his hand off in the process, exhaustion from his training obvious, and he looked slightly agitated.

But Triton merely folded his arms, wanting Percy to think things through, knowing that he was capable of solving the next problem. "You seem to be forgetting something," he replied, waiting to see if it would click in Percy's mind.

After a few minutes of waiting Percy didn't seem to get what Triton was talking about, and before Percy could become frustrated and lose control Triton told him, "The mist? Didn't you come up with a cover story so that you could come to father's palace?"

It amused Triton as it was his turn to watch Percy's eyes widen in realization. As the news dawned on Percy the boy ran his hand through his hair and began muttering under breath, apparently thinking things through. "I guess I'll have to manipulate it again," he said aloud, but as his eyes flashed to Triton and a planning look got on his face Triton couldn't help but think, 'Uh-oh. What does he have planned for me?'

Percy seemed to be thinking things through before snapping his fingers and Triton immediately felt the mist being manipulated. "We are staying outside of New York for a while before heading back to Greece due to an argument. I didn't want to go to Greece let alone attend a private school there because I like it here, so you and father agreed to stay behind for a bit. You still want me to head back and we are still trying to work things out, but in the meanwhile you are teaching me instead of me attending school. You are a certified tutor and private teacher, so you have agreed to take my schooling on so that the family can spend some time together and so that I won't have to miss school. Should I return home, you'll transfer any learning and credit to the school so that I can pass my grades."

The moment Percy said this and manipulated the mist Triton groaned. "A private teacher? Really?"

"Well," Percy began, "That's what you are doing, right? I mean, since father and mother aren't able to take up my training at the moment." He grinned widely and Triton wanted to smack that smile off his face but then Percy continued, "I just tagged on the 'certified' part to make it seem legitimate."

One thing was for sure. Triton didn't like being compared to a teacher, thinking it something a servant did. He was a prince! But even as he thought on things he knew it was too late since Percy had already manipulated the mist. And so Triton held his tongue. "Very well," the older god growled. "Let's get this over with, and hope that father or mother doesn't find out."

"And if they do I'll just say that I was tired of being stuck under the ocean and that I wanted a chance to walk on the surface. And I'll tell them that you came with me to make sure that nothing happens."

Triton nodded and grumbled again. "Me, a prince, act like a tutor? Never in my life!"

And so Triton grumbled like this almost all the way to the credit union.

Eventually, after he calmed down some (after getting some weird looks from the humans passing by him), he decided to take a look at his surroundings as Percy led them through the crowds. Triton was careful to make sure that he didn't lose track of his brother and he did his best to act normal as his grumbling had got him some strange looks, but he hadn't been to the mortal world very often.

Before they had gone to the public places, Triton had waved his hands and Percy's clothing had shifted to look like the things that Percy had worn before he had come to live at the palace. Percy had also shown Triton an outfit in his mind using the sea mind to mind connection and as Triton waved his hands his clothing shifted. Triton had to do all this for them due to the fact that Percy wasn't quite able to do that with his powers, yet anyways.

As they traveled through the crowds Percy didn't seem to want to slow down, moving the fast pace that New Yorkers tend to, and so Triton had been forced to speed up before he lost track of his brother. When they finally reached the sky scraper that held the credit union Triton looked up, somewhat in amazement of how high tall the magnificent glass monument was. Not even the Romans had been able to build something this high.

But Percy, used to the high sky scrapers took no notice of it and walked straight into a set of twirling doors that Triton felt looked odd. He followed his brother after finding an opening in the doors and had to jog some in order to catch up with his brother who was near a set of double doors, a yellow light on one of the buttons. What he had missed was Percy pushing the up button.

The elder god was not used to walking on land and so it was somewhat awkward for him. Walking on land was different from walking on the water. For one, the movement of the air felt different. But air was also light, and yet gravity could be felt more it seemed, whereas the water had seemed so buoyant. But to an outsider they wouldn't have noticed Triton struggling to walk, for it didn't look that way.

Triton often wondered how his mother and father could stand to walk all day like this without water beneath them. Then again they had been to the mortal world more often than he had as Amphitrite would sometimes attend her husband places leaving the kingdom to Triton to run. That and they would sometimes go to Olympus together with Triton when Poseidon had had those meetings on the solstice. Triton, using his land legs would walk around a bit in the gardens. He had to admit that the gardens were beautiful and that the land seemed to have a different but equal beauty that the sea did, but he would never admit it.

As Triton watched Percy walk onto the elevator, who then motioned for him to join him, Triton noted that Percy seemed to have none of that awkwardness, whether on land or at sea. It was probably due to the fact that he had walked on land most of his life, but he had also been in the sea a lot even though he hadn't spent half his life at sea. He was used both.

The elevator when up for a while and they both stood there in silence for a bit, no one in the elevator but them, and when the doors finally opened to let them out Percy once again led the way.

The hallway was lined with doors. They were on both the right and on the left, and up ahead the hallway seemed to end with another hallway crossing them. Percy led them to the right and after walking for a bit and through a pair of opened double doors Percy led them to a door in the far corner of the building. Opening the door and stepping in, Triton followed, to be amazed at the seemingly cramped room that was inside.

There was a desk in front, and chairs for waiting in. Triton frowned somewhat in disgust, hoping he wouldn't have to sit in these chairs that must be filthy, but Percy took no notice. Instead he walked up the desk, took a plastic number off the counter, and then he went towards some chairs in the corner to sit down.

People began staring as Triton just stood there, and so to look less conspicuous, he went and grudgingly sat by brother, a disgusted look on his face as he sat down, as if he were sitting in manure or something. Percy looked at him in amusement as Triton grumbled under his breath, "Never in my life," and Percy couldn't help but chuckle at him, causing Triton to glare at him.

"First time, huh?" Percy laughed at him and Triton soooooooooooo wanted to smack him for his amusement. Despite the fact that he had spoken this rather quietly, somebody a couple chairs and a table full of magazines away had heard him and turned over to them, curious. "He's from another country," Percy explained. Triton couldn't help but be grateful suddenly for Percy's manipulation of the mist and his comment, for he didn't want to explain for himself.

Percy then proceeded to get up and get a computer magazine before sitting down again and reading. 'He must appreciate having his ADHD and dyslexia cured after becoming a god,' Triton thought to himself, noting how engrossed Percy seemed in the magazine. But Triton had no interest in finding out what he was reading nor getting a magazine himself to read, so they both just sat there in silence.

Finally, after what seemed like forever to Triton, a black contraption with digital numbers on it displayed Percy's number and and a woman's voice permeated the air saying, "Number eighty one A. Number eighty one A."

Percy immediately got up and put the magazine back and proceeded to the desk with Triton close behind. A beautiful woman with red curly hair wearing a dress said to his brother, "Mary in cubicle A will help you."

As Percy nodded he led the way through a series of magazine tables out of the waiting area to the door in the far corner only for both of them to be stopped when the woman called out again to Triton, "I'm sorry, sir, but you're going to wait your turn."

At this both of them turned and Percy responded back politely, "He's my brother. He's coming with me."

But the woman shook her head. "I can't allow that. The law won't for confidentiality reasons."

"Well he has my permission to come with me," Percy responded even sharper and with authority, not realizing what he was doing, the power causing the mortal to cringe some. It was a side effect of a god demanding something, and Triton put a hand on his shoulder and thought to his brother, 'Get a hold of your powers Percy. You might end up harming the mortals.'

For a moment Percy was shocked, his expression obvious, and he suddenly realized what he was unintentionally doing. Then he nodded, composing himself again, and Triton could see that Percy now understood why he had to have these lessons before going into the mortal world. It was too easy to accidentally use one's power and accidentally harm a mortal.

The mortals were watching the conflict warily, and as Percy stepped through the door with his brother close behind, no one stopped them this time. The entire room must have felt the power and authority behind his words and therefore decided to leave him be.

The next room was different, the entire edges of the room lined with one long desk that extended on three walls of the room, people behind the desks. Percy walked up to the one that had the name Mary in it. He greeted her politely before asking her to withdraw everything but five dollars from his checking account, and all but five dollars from his savings account. Mary seemed like she was going to protest before Percy snapped his fingers and she stood straight up and proceeded with the transaction, affected by the mist.

When she returned with the money in several large envelopes, Percy put it in his coat pocket, the coat pocket magically enchanted to hold anything, no matter the size, and to feel weightless, much like Leo's toolbelt. As he walked out and led them back to the alley, Percy pulled out the receipt to see the amount that they had withdrawn. He frowned.

"Well," Percy replied. "I've got enough here to cover slightly over half the repairs once converted to drachma, but no more than that." Triton wanted to groan. They were back to square one.

Percy was scratching his head, thinking, when Triton asked, "Did you withdraw all your money?"

But his brother shook his head. "I can't withdraw all the money without closing the account, and I can't withdraw the money I've invested until after a certain time, or else there are penalties." He sighed, but he seemed exhausted. It was still a lot of money he had withdrawn. "I guess that we'll have to find another way to supplement the full amount. "

He then led them through the crowds of New York to walk back to the ocean, and while they were walking a little girl who was selling lemonade ran into them spilling some lemonade on Triton. Triton, slightly irritated, turned to her, growling, "Watch it!" but Percy, embarrassed at his brother's behavior, pulled Triton away who growled, "Get your hands off me, Percy!" Percy, red with embarrassment as people began staring at them, walked away a few paces, Triton following, before rounding on his brother suddenly.

They were slightly out of the way of the crowd and Percy proceeded to chastise Triton. "You can't just yell at a little girl because she accidentally ran into you!"

"Yes I can!" Triton hissed back, an argument brewing once more and he was frustrated with his brother for standing up for her. "She spilled her liquid substance all over me!"

"It's called an accident!" Percy snapped back, and his eyes flashed. Upon seeing this Triton immediately calmed himself down so that he could help Percy get his powers in check, because he knew that if anything happened they would both get in trouble, he most of all since he was supposed be watching out for Percy and because he had allowed and given permission for Percy to come here. Not to mention then that the secret of the broken trident might get out.

"Fine!" Triton grumbled, calming down with every second. He was relieved when his brother visibly calmed down after that and when the power that began emanating off of him calmed down slightly. The mortals had luckily taken no notice of it and were instinctively skirting around them without thinking about what they were doing.

As Percy glanced back his eyes glazed over and he almost incoherently muttered, "Lemonade stand," talking about the little girl's business before his eyes lit up and he looked at Triton. "Lemonade stand!"

Triton folded his arms, eying his brother warily, wondering what was going on in his little brother's head. "What?" he asked, not sure what to make of Percy's sudden expression.

But Percy merely turned back, his eyes suddenly bright. "We're going to be able to refill the accounts!" he exclaimed softly, excitement in his eyes. "Brother, I have an idea!"

Groaning, Triton couldn't help but be suddenly even more wary of whatever his brother's new idea was.

'Oh no, not again.'

(On Olympus)

(Poseidon Point of View)

The council, which had convened for so-called emergency reasons, was meeting to discuss topics that weren't even the least bit emergencies. And Poseidon was bored. He thought back on his two sons and silently wondered how they were doing. Day dreaming certainly seemed better than the bored cereal expansion topic that his beloved sister Demeter was talking about. He desperately wanted a distraction.

But he should have been careful what he asked for. An Iris message of his wife suddenly appeared and startled Poseidon, and he could see the stressed and angry look on his wife's face.

"Amphitrite?" he greeted her in confusion, and she frowned at him before folding her arms.

"You could do a better job organizing, you know," she scolded him and Poseidon winced.

"What's missing now?" he asked his wife and he put a hand to his head, hoping that she wouldn't give him a long speech about putting things away like last time.

"How about the accounting scrolls?" she asked with a steely note, and Hades leaned over to look at the Iris message, obviously desperate for a distraction, (he and Hestia had been given permanent thrones on the Olympian council and so the Olympus council now numbered fourteen).

Hades snickered some, glancing at his brother who was now glaring at him, and he said to to his queen, "It's nice to see you again, Amphitrite. It's only been three hundred years. Tell me, has my little brother misplaced something important again?"

Poseidon so wanted to smack Hades on the head, but then he remembered the promise that Percy had made the Olympian council give after the second giant war and he thought better on it. The council had given them all a gift of their choice on the river Styx (and part of Percy's request had been thrones for Hades and Hestia to be added with the council to now number fourteen) before they dropped the bomb on their children that they were becoming gods and goddesses, not even giving them the option. And Poseidon should have known that Percy would request for his gift something selfless like this that would affect the entire Olympian council. Actually, his request included this.

His actual request had been that Hades and Hestia have permanent thrones on the Olympian council without throwing anyone off the council, making the council now number fourteen. Since then, Hades had had an even greater respect for Percy and had a soft spot for him, allowing Percy to call him "uncle" while still mortal, something even Zeus wouldn't allow Percy to do to him. But his request had also been some things that went against the ancient laws, mainly that the gods start interacting with not just their mortal children but their mortal family more, and that included legacies and the Romans. He also made them promise to act more like a family. Since that day, the gods had started going to the camp on a monthly basis, though not exactly on the same day that other gods went. And Poseidon, wanting to be around his sons more had been more than willing to agree.

Unfortunately this decision also applied to the minor gods, and Triton had grudgingly come to visit Percy once at the newly rebuilt camp Demigod but only because Poseidon had ordered it due to the oath that the council had made. But he had stayed in the Triton cabin, refusing to spend time in the Poseidon cabin with Percy and even Tyson (though he had invited Tyson to stay in the Triton cabin). Even Amphitrite had ignored the Amphitrite cabin and had stayed with her husband in the Poseidon cabin.

And after Annabeth and the others were made gods and goddesses, cabins were built for them, just as the Perseus cabin was being built now. Poseidon had to wonder when it would be done. Not that he expected his son to have any demigod children for Percy wasn't like that, he was loyal. But not only were the cabins honorary, but champions often stayed in the cabins of their patrons if they had no godly parents, and Poseidon could imagine his son and Annabeth, his soon to be daughter in law (he assumed) having numerous champions.

"Yes," Amphitrite angrily responded to Hades question, and Hades laughed some, only for Demeter to send a glare in their direction before ranting on again. Luckily she didn't seem to notice the Iris message. "The accounting scrolls are gone, and I've looked everywhere in the office!"

Poseidon groaned once again, rubbing his head, and he began listing off the usual. "Did you check our room?"

"Yes."

"Did you check in the game room?"

"Yes."

"Did you check in Triton's room?"

"Why would it be there?" she asked incredulously.

"Good point," Poseidon replied, realizing what a dumb question it was. Of course it wouldn't be in Triton's room! Triton didn't do any of his own book keeping! It wouldn't be in Tyson's room, for he was too young to do his own book keeping, and it wouldn't be in Percy's room because he didn't know about the accounts yet.

Poseidon began listing off places again. "Did you check the throne room?"

"Yes," came the irritated response. "Even though it was unlikely!"

"And did you check our library."

"Yes, though why would it be there?"

At this Poseidon was stumped. He last remembered putting the scrolls away, though this wouldn't be the first time he thought he put it away only for to find that it was missing. "Poseidon," his wife scolded him. "I need you to think back to when you last-"

"Poseidon!" Zeus announced and the god looked up to see his younger brother and king of the gods looking at him. When Poseidon tilted his head Zeus asked once more, "I said, do you have anything to say to the Olympian council?"

The man sighed and stared back at his wife. Now the entire room could see that he was speaking through an iris message to his wife and Poseidon could see that Hades had an amused smirk on his face. He turned back to his wife and said, "I have to go Amphitrite."

"Poseidon!" she screeched. "Don't you dare-" But it was cut off as he swished his hand through the message. No doubt he would be hearing from her about that later.

There were many gods and goddesses on the council now snickering at him. Apparently the last part of his conversation had been heard by the entire council, and he hadn't noticed. "Well," Hades responded next to him. "I pity you going back to your wife. You're going to have trouble when you get back."

But the god was now angry and his fists clenched. He could feel the ocean reeling with his anger and he replied to the entire council, directing his glare at Zeus as the god was smiling in amusement at the new developments that had practically gone public, "No! I don't have anything for the council."

At this the council began laughing and he leaned back in his throne, his arms folded, angry. 'Remember your promise to Percy. Remember your promise to Percy,' he repeated over and over in his mind to keep his anger in control and to prevent himself from doing anything to his fellow family members on the council.

But Zeus finally stood up and seemed more mature. "Enough!" he demanded. "We have other items to attend to!"

And with that the council composed themselves. Poseidon calmed down some and Hades sighed as the next speaker began talking. "I apologize, brother," Hades murmured sincerely. "I shouldn't have laughed at you."

"Well at least your the mature brother," Poseidon grumbled to Hades, glancing at Zeus who still had an amused smirk on his face and was looking at him.

"Don't worry about it," Hades responded, also glancing at Zeus. "He'll come around. Eventually. Even if it takes him one thousand years longer."

Poseidon relaxed some, calming down a bit and the ocean returned somewhat to normal. "I suppose."

"Don't worry, your son has a way of getting people to change," Hades reassured him and Poseidon couldn't help but be surprised that out of his two brothers it would be Hades coming to stand up for him.

A small smile played on his lips as he thought about Percy, his Percy that would now be with him and the family forever. "That he does."

(Evening Time)

(Back in the palace in Percy's Room)

(Percy Point of View)

Triton was sitting on Percy's bed, waiting for Percy to speak, and Percy was getting his big presentation ready. He had spent the last couple of hours working on it, even going so far as to buy poster paper. He wouldn't tell Triton what his ideas were because he wanted his visual objects to be ready beforehand (he would burn them afterward) and finally his brother demanded. "Well? We haven't got all night!"

"I know!" Percy called out, in a separate room in his apartment at the palace, at a stone table adding his last touch ups of color to the poster. "I'll be right out."  
At this, grumbling began in the other room and Percy sped up before his brother could start causing some problems. Finally he was finished.

Coming into the other room he pulled out a tripod for presentations that he had snuck back into his mortal house to get (he hoped his mother didn't need it and noticed that it was missing) and after readying it he turned back to Triton.

"What is that?" Triton asked him, unimpressed. He was pointing at the group of posters Percy was setting down.

"Well," Percy began, talking rather excitedly again, and one would think that his ADHD was back. "Since this is a business proposition, I wanted to give a business presentation so that you would know what this is all about, that's why this is here!"

At this Triton rolled his eyes and stood up. "I see I've wasted my time," he grumbled and began swimming over to the door.

But Percy was faster and he swam over and blocked the entrance, arms spread. "No! No you haven't!" he assured him and Triton swam back over to the bed, irritated slightly.

"Then don't waste my time!" Triton snapped at him and Percy heaved in a deep breath to keep himself from getting angry and thus loosing control of his powers.

"Well," Percy began and he put the first poster on the stand, a graph, wondering if Triton would get it. "As you can see, this is the amount that we owe the cyclops." And he pointed towards a point on the graph. "And this is the amount that we currently have." He pointed to another spot. "And we have to replenish the money in your account so that no one will notice anything." And he pointed to yet another spot on the graph.

"Get to the point!" Triton grumbled once more, wanting it over with.

Percy rolled his eyes in irritation that he wasn't even being given a chance. "I'm getting there! I'm getting there. Anyways," he changed the subject back. "The money we withdrew from my mortal account is not enough replenish your account."

"We already know that!" Triton snapped, interrupting him. "So get to the point!"

Percy sighed. "Let me finish." He took the graph off the stand and picked up a different poster, the blank side facing Triton. "So after some careful thinking, I came up with this!"

As he turned the poster around and set it on the stand, Percy couldn't help but feel proud. The poster was basically one giant business logo and Triton read it out lout, unimpressed. "Sea Brother's Cookie Shop?" He gazed at Percy, understanding but unimpressed.

"Yes!" Percy explained excitedly. "But we can come up with a different name if you like!"

A frown spread on Triton's face and Percy had to hold out hope that his brother would work with him. "We're starting a business?" Triton asked, unimpressed.

Percy nodded. "Yes!"

But his brother only scoffed. "Businesses are for mortals, not for princes of the sea, let alone gods."

"Hey!" Percy exclaimed, slightly offended that Triton didn't like his idea. "What do you think Hephaestus television is?"

But Triton merely scoffed again and rolled his eyes. "This is beneath us, Percy!"

"And it's not like we have much of a choice!" Percy snapped in irritation, tired of his brother's arrogant and self conceited nature. "And besides, do you have any other ideas to make up enough money to cover the expenses? If we're going to pay the cyclops, you're going to have to get used to _**working**_ even if you think it's 'beneath you'."

And Triton raised his eyebrows at this, seemingly ignoring Percy's comment about working like a mortal. "Perseus, it takes _**money**_ to start a business, even I know that! And it's _**money**_ we need to pay the cyclops!"

"I know that!" Percy exclaimed, trying to ignore his irritation at his brother's full use of his name. "And it's Percy, by the way!" And somehow Percy wasn't surprised when Triton rolled his eyes at this, as it seemed to be in his nature.

Percy took down the poster and put up a new one. "Look, I've made the calculations. And if everything works out, this is what it will take to keep the business running, and this the profit we should make, more than enough to cover the expenses with the cyclops."

"Should?" Triton questioned.

And for once Percy couldn't help but feel the same nervousness, but he tried to mask it. "Well, every business is a risk," Percy explained, suddenly grateful that his mother had forced him to take business, economy, and entrepreneurship. "But I think this risk is worth it."

"You think?" Triton echoed, clearly not impressed.

"Well, do you have another idea to generate money?" Percy snapped at him, not liking his lack of faith. "Look," he exclaimed, coming closer to stand right in front of Triton. "I took business, economy, and entrepreneurship in school. I'm _**confident**_ that it will work." 'Well,' he thought to himself in an offhand thought. 'Mostly confident anyways. But he doesn't need to know that.'

Triton stood up and looked Percy in the eyes, perhaps to see if there was any deception in it. But upon seeing none, and seeing him mostly confident, he sighed. "Very well," he grumbled. "Go start your cookie shop."

"Hey!" Percy snapped, irritated once more. "It's called Sea _**Brother's**_ Cookie Shop for a reason!" he pointed out, emphasizing the plurality in brothers. "Seeing as it's your account we're replenishing, and seeing as we were both in the fight, you're helping me with this business!"

A growl escaped from Triton and he glared at his younger brother. Percy knew that look in his eyes. It was a, 'How dare this younger god and sibling boss me around!' look. But Percy glared back, wanting to get the point across. "If this business is going to work," Percy firmly told him. "It's going to take the both of us, _**and**_ it's going to take us working _**together**_."

Triton still continued to glare at him, but Percy could feel that the worse of the wrath was over. "And what am I supposed to tell mother?" Triton exclaimed, but Percy felt it was less about that and more about him trying to find a way out of it. "It's not exactly in my nature to go start a mortal business!"

"We'll tell her that in exchange for training, I made you agree to see some of the mortal world with me, and to experience some of the mortal world!"

"Only if we can say that I had no choice and you wouldn't do your training otherwise!" Triton growled.

"Fine!" Percy snapped back. "Done! Now do you agree? On the river Styx!"

As Triton sighed in defeat, Percy felt a little calmer. "I swear to start a business with you on the river Styx," he grumbled. A thunderclap was heard and Percy calmed down some. He was bound to his oath.

"Okay then!' Percy grinned. "Let's get started!"

**Alright, what do you think of that?**

**Please review if you are reading! Only three people reviewed the last chapter. Though I am really grateful to the people who reviewed chapter two! So internet cookies to you for that!**

**Firestar'sniece**


	4. Chapter 4: Sea Brother's Cookie Shop

**Thank you so much for the reviews! I got eight reviews last chapter and I really appreciate it! I really appreciate it when people take the time to review when they read my story! So thank you to all who reviewed!**

**I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or Heroes of Olympus.**

**I also apologize for not updating so soon. I got busy or rather life got busy and I didn't have as much time as I used to. But here it is now. **

**Enjoy!**

Chapter Four: Sea Brother's Cookie Shop

(Percy Point of View)

'After finally another brilliant idea by yours truly,' Percy thought to himself as he lay on his bed awaiting to be called to dinner. 'Triton and I will finally be able to move onto the next faze of our plan, replenishing his account and paying the cyclops.'

It was a brilliant idea, at least to Percy that is. Sure, he had thought it over carefully, and if they both worked together he was sure that nothing could go wrong. That is, if they worked together.

The only thing weighing on Percy's mind was Triton's arrogance, and his lack of wanting to do anything that he considered beneath him. 'I wonder how he'll fare with all this,' he thought to himself. 'Will he even cooperate?'

A few moments later a merman came up and informed him that his mother required his presence for dinner.

Percy wasn't sure what he was expecting, but as he went to the palace dining room, wondering when Tyson would come back from camp, Percy met Triton out in the hallway who seemed to be waiting for him. Much to the confusion of the merpeople he told them to go in without him, and he pulled Percy aside privately to talk to him before they went in. "Not a word about this," Triton growled at him before nodding his head that Percy could go in.

But Percy wasn't going to let this go without a retort of his own. "Do you really think I would say anything?" he pointed out the obvious, exasperated with Triton's rudeness. "After all if I did, we'd _**both**_ be in trouble." Percy felt the need to emphasize the fact that they were both the instigators of the trouble to point out to Triton that he had just as much to do with it as Percy did.

"Yes, well," Triton turned back and looked Percy in the eyes. "Just don't say anything."

"And what I'm saying is I know," Percy shot back and Triton rolled his eyes, not replying anymore. He led them into the dining room.

At first, Percy wasn't sure what to expect. This was, after all, his first dinner with his new mother. He wasn't sure whether to be excited or nervous. And so he resorted to looking around the room.

It was a rather large dining room and Percy was sure that it could easily fit at least one hundred people if they wanted to. But there was one large dinner table, and it was assorted with various seaweed and other things that people under the sea might it. Percy noticed that there was no meat and that was fine by him. He was used to being on a vegetarian diet when he was at sea. He didn't eat fish or any sea creatures, after all how could he?

The ceiling was high and arched with columns, and as Percy looked up he couldn't help but be surprised that they'd be able to hold under the weight of the water. Air was one thing, but water was another. And so the boy concluded that the columns and the ceilings of the palace must be enchanted somewhat to hold up under a lot of pressure. But even though he was now immortal he couldn't help but hope that the ceiling wouldn't cave in any time soon.

And so Percy began the long walk to the dining room table, which seemed kind of lonely. Surprisingly, like in the medieval and Renaissance times, they were going to be waited upon, this time by merpeople. Percy was somewhat used to it at Camp Demigod where they were brought food on platters by nymphs or others, but the nymphs served many. This time, it looked like they would have at least two or three attendants each. Percy couldn't help but think that it was a little over bored. He wasn't used to this kind of royal treatment, even though he was royal.

Since Queen Amphitrite was the only head of the family present, she sat at the head of the table. The head of the table was big enough for both her and her husband to sit at the head, side by side, but the space next to her was empty, seeing that Poseidon was gone. Percy also noticed the good condition of the table, and he wondered if this, too, was preserved by magic. Even though it looked brand new, it also looked as if it had been here for a while.

Percy watched as Triton sat down on Amphitrite's right, and being clueless as to where he was supposed to go, he waited until Amphitrite motioned him over to sit across from Triton. Percy wondered if the seating arrangements were permanent. Percy did as he was motioned to do, but he also couldn't help but be nervous when he noticed the stressed and agitated look on his mother's face.

Immediately the "waiters" began serving the food. Percy watched how the others ate and tried to mimic them without knowing whether or not he was succeeding. He knew nothing of the mannerisms here.

As they began eating Amphitrite began sighing. She put the food down that she was eating and turned to look at her two sons. "I tell you," she began. "I keep getting after your father to put everything away! And he still doesn't!"

Percy wanted to tense but he knew not to give anything away. Suddenly he understood why Triton had taken him aside before entering. It was almost as if he had been anticipating this. He did, after all, know mother the best since he had been living with her and Poseidon several thousand years longer.

And so Percy put a confused look on his face and did his best to just listen.

Fortunately, Triton seemed to be a pretty good actor and Percy wondered if he had acting lessons. "What seems to be the missing, mother?" he asked though Percy was sure both he and his brother knew what Amphitrite was talking about. After all, she could only be talking about one thing, the accounting scrolls. They were the only thing that Percy was aware of that was "missing".

Amphitrite frowned and glanced at Percy who was eating and kept that confused look on his face. Triton glanced at him to and gave nothing away, and when Amphitrite turned back to him his expression was neutral. "I'll talk about it later," she informed her eldest son, and Percy could tell that Amphitrite still thought he didn't know about the accounting scrolls. It was, after all, Triton who told him about it without mom and dad knowing. "It's about the you-know-what that we keep for all the family members."

Triton nodded, acting like he suddenly understood, keeping a neutral expression on his face. As Percy looked nervously at the waiters he was somewhat relieved to see that they didn't seem to suspect anything. He and Triton must have been acting well enough to cover it up. They must not have acted suspiciously.

But Percy wanted to get out of here. He wasn't sure for how much longer he could keep it up. "Well, mother," Triton began smoothly, and when he completed this statement, Percy couldn't help but be impressed at how well Triton had redirected Amphitrite's thoughts to put the blame on father. "You know father, he sometimes looses things."

"That's the problem," Amphitrite quickly replied, a stressed look on her face.

And at that look Triton's expression softened. "Don't be worried, mother," he comforted her, even though he and Percy were the ones behind it. "I'm sure it will show up eventually. It usually does."

"Usually," Amphitrite pointed out, though Triton couldn't help but wince at that.

"Usually," Triton agreed. At this a guilty feeling spread through Percy at what he had done to his new mother, and he could tell that Triton felt the same way. Fortunately neither of them acted in any suspicious way and were able to keep up the act. "But you always worry every time that it will never show up when it usually does."

At this Amphitrite seemed to relax, seeing the truth in it. "You're right," she agreed with her son. "I'll just make my husband look for it when he gets back seeing as he's the one that misplaced it."

An awkward silence then assumed, and Amphitrite seemed to acquaint it to the fact that Percy had a confused expression on his face. When she saw this, she must have assumed that Percy didn't know what they were talking about, for her expression softened and she told the boy, "I apologize. Perhaps we should talk about something that includes you as well?"

"No, that's all right," Percy replied in discomfort, wanting to get out of the situation. "I understood enough to know that father misplaced something?" Her nervously glanced at Triton before adding. "I guess that doesn't come from my birth mother's side then. I also have the same issue." He smiled nervously and Amphitrite seemed to warm up to him at that.

"Well," she replied. "I suppose that you and father will get along well, then?" She laughed a bit and Percy joined in nervously.

At that moment he was saved the nervous tension by an iris message from his girlfriend and Percy got up with joy. "Can I take this?" he asked his new mom, and without waiting for an answer he swished through the rainbow and swam quickly to his room, grateful that his girlfriend was there to save him and distract him.

Once he was in his room another iris message appeared and Percy greeted his girlfriend with joy. "Annabeth!" he exclaimed, relief evident in his features.

"First dinner with your new mom that awkward?" Annabeth guessed, looking at Percy. It was evident even to her that he was happy for the distraction.

Percy chuckled nervously. "You have no idea," he ran his hand through his hair and looked away somewhat. "I mean, father isn't even there, so it's even more awkward."

But to his joy Annabeth seemed to understand. "It was the same thing for me when I ate dinner with my mom for the first time. That, and we were invited with her father to eat with them." Percy nodded in understanding that it would have been with his uncle Zeus that they'd had dinner with. "And talk about awkward. I mean, mother seemed completely fine with it, and it was nice having Jason and Thalia there, but it was still awkward for all of us new gods."

Percy thought on Thalia Grace who had been offered godhood after the giant war for her services. He'd found out that she'd accepted the day before Percy became a god instead of waiting until she died to become a goddess. Apparently she had changed her mind on the timing. She must not have wanted to be left behind. She must have heard the rumors from Zeus that he was going to make Percy become a god sooner. And since she was the sky king's daughter, she must have been one of the first to hear the moment Zeus had made this decision. And of course Zeus couldn't refuse her request to be made a goddess sooner, she being his daughter.

She had also taken on a role of assisting Artemis in her hunt. Because she was a goddess she was released from the obligations of the hunt, but she still loved to assist her sister and her former hunting companions. Phoebe had become Artemis's new lieutenant, and even though Thalia hadn't been a hunter that long she was honored very much for being Artemis's former lieutenant. Truth be told, she still walked with the hunt, helping her sister and her sister's hunters. But if she ever wanted to get married, now she was able to. She was no longer bound by the hunter's oath.

So far, though, Thalia hadn't shown much interest in giving up the old ways of the hunt. Though she had not sworn on the river Styx, like Athena and Artemis, to be an eternal maiden, she still followed the same protocols that the hunters did. In fact since becoming a goddess she and Artemis had grown closer, like true sisters and best friends. She was very much welcome in the hunter's camp. And she spent most of her time in the hunter's camp. She was now the goddess that assisted Artemis in the hunt, unofficially and for now. But she may be given a domain and new responsibilities like the others soon. However, since she was older than Jason, she was the heir to Zeus's throne.

No one was sure why Zeus had spared her responsibilities when the other gods and goddesses had been immediately been given new responsibilities after being given godhood. Perhaps it was because she as Zeus's favorite daughter, or perhaps it was because she was so much involved in the hunt that it didn't matter for she had found responsibilities of her own. But the others had been given responsibilities.

Percy was made his father's lieutenant and served under his father, his new mother, and his elder brother. He was made second in line for the throne, and he was the general of his father's forces. (Even Tyson and Tyson's cyclops served under him as long as it was in his father's domain. After all, Tyson was the general of the gods' combined armies, but Percy was over his father's armies and the armies in his father's domain, thus if they were in his father's domains, Tyson and his cyclops would be subject to Percy). Percy was also the adviser to the big three and all the gods on matters of mortals and demigods. He was also a judge of demigods and demigod matters.

Annabeth had been made a teacher of crafts and the art of wielding weapons, serving under her mother. Because of this, she was at camp often as soon as she was done with learning how to control her powers. She was also an assistant of the armies of Zeus's domain due to being a daughter of the goddess of battle strategies, much as Percy was over the battle plans of the armies of Poseidon's domain (Percy merely had more responsibilities as a general). She also remained the architect of Olympus.

Jason had been a made a judge of demigod matters as well, a companion of Percy in this regard. He was also made a general of the armies in Zeus's domain, and was also a teacher of Zeus's future children on how to wield their powers.

Piper had been made a teacher on how to use advanced charm speaking. She was also given the gift of seeing what lay ahead by Apollo and advised the Olympian council in this regard.

Hazel was an assistant to Hecate and a teacher of magic. She was also, as a princess of the underworld, an overseer of wealth. She was also the general of Hades/Pluto's army of skeletons and ghosts, because that was the role that the second in line to a throne did, they were their parent's lieutenant. She was also a forger of Stygian iron swords and weapons.

Nico, being older than Hazel, had been made his father's heir. He was still the ghost king, and commanded the skeletons and ghosts in his father's army, but because he was his father's heir, he was the messenger of the underworld seeing as for some reason the second in line for the throne was always the general of their father's army under the king and the king's heir (thus why Percy was Poseidon's general).

But because he was Hade's heir, Hazel answered with her army to him. He was also a forger of Stygian iron swords and weapons, like his sister, being supplied by Leo with this material. He was also protective of Alexandra, the reincarnation of his sister Bianca, who was once again born the daughter of Hades.

Frank was his father's assistant, as well as an adviser to all the generals. He was also able to command the ghosts and skeletons of those who lost, under of course Nico's management, seeing as those of the underworld always had more power and authority in this kind of thing. And seeing as Frank was a legacy of Poseidon, Poseidon saw fit to make him a manager of small sea creatures such as fish. Thus, Frank was kept busy with both of his duties.

Frank was also able to gift the ability of shape shifting to anyone, much like Poseidon could, but this was because Frank was able to do this himself as well (all the children of the gods kept their abilities when they became gods; their demigod abilities were merely strengthened and increased, and they even developed new abilities related to their godly parents' domain).

Leo was an interesting case. He was the assistant of Hephaestus, as well as a finder and creator of celestial bronze and imperial gold. He was in charge of keeping the demigods supplied with these unique metals. He was also able to create and find Stygian iron, and was able to give small portions of it to children of the underworld in the camps. But he was also a creator, becoming more gifted than Daedalus when he became a god, and he was the inventor of the gods. But he was also the husband of the newly released Calypso. They lived together on a cottage near camp half blood.

"So tell me," Percy asked Annabeth, over with his thoughts for now. "Now that we're gods and goddesses, we technically don't have to wait to get married. Do you want to get married sooner?"

The moment Percy asked this Annabeth blushed, which was not something that a god or goddess normally did. Her thoughts must have come to Leo and Calypso, the newlyweds, who were going to go on their second honeymoon sometime soon. "It's different for Leo and Calypso," she pointed out. "For one, Leo has no mortal family who can say no, even though he's "underage"."

"Is it different?" Percy pointed out. "The age of marriage amongst the gods is different. The age of marriage is sixteen, and it took Thalia only one day to turn sixteen after she became a goddess. Even she could marry now if she wants. Both you and I are seventeen, so is it really any different than Leo and Calypso?"

"Percy!" Annabeth began. "Yes it is! For one, we have a mortal family and we would have to go to them first to make it legitimate in the mortal world! Yes, it may be valid here, but not in the mortal world! And second, though I love you, I'm not ready!"

Percy nodded in understanding. "I'll wait eternity for you," he promised sincerely. "I will always wait."

"And when I'm ready, I'll say yes," Annabeth promised him back and Percy smiled. "I don't know how long it will take me, maybe until I'm twenty five, but when I am ready I'll say yes."

"Do you at least want to get engaged?" Percy asked hopefully, wondering if he was pushing his luck. "After all, even when we're engaged, we don't have to get married right away. We can wait until you're ready."

But the girl of his dreams looked at him strangely. "I'll think about it," she promised, and then she swiped through the message, ending it.

(Triton Point of View)

The next day after training, Triton and Percy spent some time together going over their plans for starting their cookie business. "Are you sure this will work?" asked a skeptic Triton, warily eying his brother in hopes that they weren't just making the biggest mistake of their lives. They were currently in Percy's mortal home (without Poseidon, Amphitrite, Sally, and Paul knowing) and Percy was going through some family recipes that had been in his mother's side for years. After baking a test batch and having it turn out good, he decided to try a few more recipes. Unfortunately he realized that he was going to have to stockpile more ingredients or his parents would notice. Thankfully, Triton made more magically appear.

When Triton had asked that questions once again (he normally didn't repeat questions) Percy looked up from where he was sitting and rolled his eyes, clearly frustrated with Triton's lack of faith. "Of _**course**_ it will be all right," Percy reassured him. "But only if we _**work together**_."

The way Percy said it made Triton frown. He realized that his brother was frustrated with him and Triton for once knew what it felt like to have to rely on someone and hope that things would work out. He had thought he had known trust before, but this was a whole new level of trust that he had never experienced before: trust in someone when one is not familiar with the situation.

Sure, in combat he had had to rely on some of his colleagues, but he knew their talents and skills and that they'd always come through with him. But to his realization he didn't know Percy that well before and this was an environment that he wasn't familiar with. Percy had experienced this kind of trust at least once before with Iapetus/Bob, probably more than that really.

But this was a first for the elder god. How his father had vouched for Percy before the fulfillment of the great prophecy after they had rescued Artemis, Triton didn't know. Well, at least he knew now where Athena got her nature of needing to not take risks with the unknown from. She must have gotten it from him when he had fostered her as his daughter at a young age. He wondered if he should tell Percy that...

'So my adopted daughter is my cousin, and hates _**my**_ father, is my brother's cousin, and my brother is dating my cousin/adoptive daughter's daughter. She and Percy are technically second cousins. Now I understand how mortals react seeing as I've never had to think on this before. It really is weird, isn't it?'

He looked on as Percy began looking at another sheet, calculating expenses again and for once Triton was frustrated feeling like something was left out. He wanted to ask once more if Percy was sure about this, but then he thought better on it, not wanting to sound weak. Bored, he sat down, glancing at his now human legs.

"Well?" he demanded after a few more minutes of Percy staring at the paper and Percy glanced over at him clearly annoyed.

"Well be patient," Percy calmly replied, crunching some numbers again with an abacus, and this time Percy frowned. He sighed. "We're not going to have enough to start a business in the mortal world," Percy announced, somewhat tense. "But we should have enough to start one in either New Greece or New Rome."

When the camps had combined a civilian's city was erected, half being called New Greece and half being New Rome, New Rome being guarded by Terminus (the Greeks didn't mind weapons in their part of the city). The middle part of the city was shared by both and was claimed by neither, but was managed jointly along with the areas outside the camps and city by the joint leaders.

The Romans still had their praetors that were over the Romans (had to be a boy and a girl), and the Greeks still had their two leaders that were over the Greeks (had to be a boy and a girl). But there were four leaders that lead both Rome and Greece and were above them in jurisdiction. The new laws required a boy and a girl from the Romans and a boy and a girl from the Greeks to be leaders til death, ones that had had experience with both the Greeks and the Romans, and these leaders were Percy and Jason, for the boys, and Annabeth and Reyna for the girls.

The two praetors of New Rome were Frank and Hazel and the two leaders of the Greeks were Clarisse la Rue and Luke Castellan who had returned from the dead and was the third counselor of Hermes cabin (counselors retained their positions in the Greek camp). Apparently Hades had decided to look the other way for Luke seeing as he had sacrificed himself to destroy Kronos. He and Percy had repaired their relationship and become good friends again.

As Percy got up he turned to his brother, a somewhat stressed look on his face. "It will be cheaper in the demigod city, and at least we'll get paid in drachma or denari. But we'll still have to buy a business license." He gave a somewhat uneasy smile and then asked, "Could you teleport us to New Greece please?"

Triton was getting tired of playing a chaperon and he was getting more agitated with his brother by the minutes. He had no idea what he was doing and he still didn't like the thought that he had to get his hands dirty. No way was he doing that! He was a prince!

But unfortunately for him, Percy was looking at him like he expected his brother to get his hands dirty. As they walked up to the capital of the city of New Greece Triton began grumbling. "Never in my life!" he muttered under his breath. "Me, a prince, doing this kind of work?!" At an amused chuckle from Percy, Triton grunted, "Shut up!"

Percy, Jason, Reyna, Annabeth, Hazel, Frank and the others were still leaders in their respective positions at the camp despite being gods. Because they were allowed to still have a somewhat mortal life they retained those positions indefinitely. After all, it was not like they could die and pass it on. But even Triton noticed how different Percy carried himself now that he was a god. He even was handling the job differently.

Truth be told the four leaders of the combined camp didn't have much to do lately with no wars going on. Though their work sort of overlapped with what the Greek and Roman leaders did, what was still part of Roman jurisdiction remained for the Roman praetors only to do, and what remained Greek jurisdiction remained only for the Greek leaders to do. What belonged to the joint leader's position, a position they called Grand Leader (for the Greek leaders) and Grand Praetor (for the Roman leaders) remained theirs.

There were certain things that were only within the jurisdiction of the Grand Leaders and the Grand Praetors. The mixed army which everyone was required to serve in after serving in the army of their respective camps was within the command of the Grand Leaders and the Grand Praetors who worked together. There were also some things that were within the joint management that the praetors and leaders couldn't do, just as much as there were things that the Roman praetors did that the Grand leaders and Grand Praetors, and Greek Leaders couldn't, and some things that the Greek leaders did that the Roman praetors, Grand Leaders and Grand Praetors couldn't. It was done this way so that both the Roman and the Greek traditions could be preserved. But despite this, the joint leaders still had leadership over all.

Percy, being part time resident here on some weekends and summers knew where he was going and so Triton had no choice but to follow. Finally they came to a grand building that looked like a somewhat modern building with offices, and Percy went inside. Being Grand Leader, he could go anywhere and no area was restricted to him (except private property of others), and even more so now that he was a god. Because Triton was a god it was the same thing for him, although he noticed with jealously that they seemed to look and bow at Percy with more respect than him. Triton sighed. 'I guess I shouldn't be surprised,' he thought. 'After all, he did work with these people.'

Percy walked right into an office of a young woman sitting at a desk. She had Asian features and she had dark hair and brown eyes. "Can I help you?" she asked after bowing to both of them, but looking at Percy a little more respectfully.

"Yes," Percy smiled. "My brother and I want to start a business and we would like to buy a business license."

"No problem," the woman smiled politely and pulled out ten pages of paperwork. She then handed it to Percy. "Just fill these out and sign right here," she replied, pointing to the signature point on the last page.

Once again, to Triton's annoyance, he had to wait. He watched with boredom, sitting in the rather uncomfortable chairs as Percy filled out the paperwork. 'I honestly don't see the point of this,' he thought as he watched Percy.

When ten minutes passed you would have thought that Triton had ADHD all his life and Percy never had it at all. "Well?" he demanded of his brother and Percy hissed in frustration.

"Do you mind?" Percy snapped. "I'm a little busy here!"

"With that?" Triton asked incredulously. "Why don't you just demand the license! You're a god after all!" At that the woman flinched, not wanting to break the rules. After all, she wasn't supposed to say no to a god either, so which rule was she supposed to follow? "You!" Triton fiercely pointed to the woman, losing his patience. "Just let us buy the license without all of this other hindrance!"

"Triton!' Percy scolded, coming to the woman's defense, and she looked at Percy gratefully. "Just have a bit of patience! I'm almost done!"

"You should have been done ten minutes ago!" Triton yelled at the younger god and Percy's hands squeezed in anger, breaking the pen in his hand.

"Well," Percy sneered, not liking the attitude his brother was giving him. "If you want something to do, why don't you do something useful and say, set up the stand!"

"Me?" Triton gasped in arrogance. 'I can't believe he would suggest me doing servant's work!' Triton fiercely thought, quite offended and ignoring the offended look on Percy's face. "Why should I do servant's work?! I'm a prince and a god!"

"Well you want something to do, so go away," Percy muttered, and Triton resisted the urge to slap his brother for that comment.

Shocked that his brother would do that and wish him away, Triton stood up, angry at his brother's need to dismiss him. "Well I'll go do something _**useful**_ and look for some 'employees'," Triton hissed back and turned to go out the door when he heard his brother scrambling after him.

"Triton!" Percy called out, his anger rising and Triton could feel it. Once more Triton was upset that father had made him Percy's teacher and that he was also the boy's babysitter at the same time. "We're _**not**_ hiring employees!"

Anger coursed through the god as he knew that meant he was going to probably be asked to get his hands dirty. He turned round on his heels and glared at Percy. "Why not?" he demanded, so angry that he was ignoring the rule to keep his brother's powers in check as Percy was unintentionally using his powers and the woman in the room was looking ready to bolt because of it.

"Because!" Percy pointed out and although Triton knew it was reasonable, he just didn't like what that meant in the end for him. "More employees costs more money as we have to pay them! We are _**not**_ hiring anyone!"

Triton sighed, and to his relief his brother calmed down. But that didn't mean that he was going to follow his brother's advice. Sure, he wouldn't hire anyone... yet. But just wait a few days. Then he would, _**without**_ his brother knowing. Until then, Percy could shoulder the work until he finally agreed to hire at least one employee. Triton would be manager. That was closer to what a prince should be doing, instead of doing the dirty work. He would set the _**proper**_ example for his brother.

Time seemed to pass so slowly for Triton, and he was grumbling in fish language the whole time. He didn't bother to observe how different it sounded above water, but he never stopped grumbling the whole two minutes it took for Percy to finish his paperwork. It seemed like ten hours to Triton.

Finally, (and Triton couldn't help but be relieved), Percy was done. Handing the paperwork and the money to the woman, she smiled nervously and handed them their license. Needless to say that Triton was relieved when they finally left.

Percy sighed, somewhat in a better mood now that they were out of that stuffy environment (that didn't affect him now that he was a god). "Okay," he announced and Triton hated that he was allowing Percy to be in charge, but he had no choice as Percy supposedly knew what he was doing. "Now all we have to do is get the supplies and get started. Here." He handed Triton a little paper with things written in Greek on it, and Triton looked at him in outrage.

"I'm not your servant!" Triton yelled at him and Percy rolled his eyes, annoyed once more.

The boy took a deep breath and then he looked his brother square in the eyes. "It will take two to run this business, Triton." When Triton looked offended at Percy's use of his name Percy sighed. "Look, All I'm asking you to do is set up the stand. The opening sign is almost ready. I have it in my, or rather father's cabin and all you need to do after that is wait for me." Percy seemed to strain himself when he realized that Poseidon's cabin was no longer his now that he was a god and had his own cabin. It must have been weird to the boy.

At the insistent look on Percy's face, Triton saw that he was not going anywhere. But at least he wouldn't be getting his hands dirty, yet. "And what are you going to do?" Triton accused, eyeing his brother warily.

Percy smiled. "I'll be baking the cookies."

(Amphitrite Point of View)

The queen was mad. Not only had her husband cut her iris message short, but he hadn't had the decency to put things away. She tried, time and time again to make him organize his belongings, but he never did, and now _**she**_ was paying the ultimate price for it, not him.

She'd searched again, researched everywhere she had looked before, and still no accounting scrolls. Her plans to make Percy apart of the family more were going out the window, so to speak.

But despite her anger, she couldn't hold a grudge forever. After all, he was still her husband. So even though she was mad at him, she still remembered their upcoming anniversary. That didn't mean that she'd let her husband off the hinge, though. When he came home, she was certainly going to have a talk with him.

And now she was headed to the forges, thinking about having a new blade made for her husband. Or a new metal statue, perhaps. Or perhaps a statue of him. Certain metals did very well under water, after all. Not to mention that the metal could be enchanted to make it so that the water couldn't affect it, if that was necessary.

But as she swam to the forges, going through the vast corridors and greeting her servants politely, she couldn't help but notice with surprise that the forges were already active, well at least one forge. This confused her. It wasn't the time for the forges to be open. She thought that she was going to have time to catch the cyclops and make her item request before they even opened. That way she wouldn't have to go into the hot and sweaty forges.

But no, that did not appear to be the case. The great queen sighed. 'Oh well,' she thought to herself. 'I guess that I'll have to go into the forges now.'

It was still curious though that the forges were already opened. But as she looked on it, it was only one forge, the one that specialized on hard to make things. This made her raise her eyebrows and question what was really going on. What were they doing in there at this time of day? And why was it the highest specialty forge that was open?

She drew nearer. Voices seemed to echo from the forges and she caught some of them, listening intently. One of them, Ka'ell she believed, was saying to the other cyclops, "Be careful with that! You don't want to bust it! Do you want _**us**_ to get in trouble for it?"

'Get in trouble?' the queen thought. 'Why would they be getting in trouble?' She inched closer and listened a little more, curious to hear more of the conversation before making herself known.

"I'm sorry!' exclaimed another cyclops. "I'm being as careful as I can!"

Ka'ell seemed to growl for a bit. "This is a specialty item. It needs to be handled with precision and care, so don't brake anything! It's a delicate process!"

At this the queen thought it was best to intervene to find out what exactly those cyclops were up to. As far as she knew, it was against the rules to use the forges for personal gain, and it was against the rule for the forges to be open this time of day without permission from the royal family. So why were they there?

But even though she swam quietly they suddenly seemed to be aware of her presence and a lot of scrambling was heard as well as banging. It seems like they were in a hurry to put things away. At one point there was an "Ooof!" as if someone had run into someone and more rushed and panicked footsteps and banging were heard.

By the time Queen Amphitrite entered, whatever it was they were working on was well out of sight, and the cyclops were on their feet, prepared to face her.

All of them were nervous, having been caught. The lead cyclops, Ka'ell, chuckled nervously and they all bowed awkwardly. "Queen Amphitrite! What a surprise! What a surprise! How can we help you?"

They all seemed to gulp and Amphitrite narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "And just what do you think you're doing here?" she asked, calm and yet with authority in her voice.

"Um," some of the cyclops said and no one seemed to want to answer.

It was Ka'ell who did. "We're... working... on... a... project..." Ka'ell nervously responded, and the queen continued to stare him down, demanding an explanation.

"You know the rules," she sternly told him. "You're not allowed to operate the forges without permission from the royal family."

"But we do have permission!" Ka'ell blurted out immediately and Amphitrite raised her eyebrows in surprise. Did her husband have something ordered for her?

"By whom?" she politely asked, entirely expecting her husband to be named. Maybe he was doing something special for her this year. She was excited and if he was, well she wanted it to be a surprise then.

But the one they named was the one she least expected to be named. "Heir Prince Triton," Ka'ell seemed to admit and this time her expression was incredulous.

"Triton?" she questioned, quite surprised at the turn of events. That was unusual. What on earth would he have want to have made that it had to not only be a secret, but that he had to use the specialty forges for?

"Yes," the cyclops began slowly, and he looked around nervously, as if he were expecting someone to eavesdrop. When he turned back to her, he edged forward slightly as if he had something forbidden to say. "Can you keep a secret?" he asked the queen, and Amphitrite nodded.

"Of course I can!" she exclaimed as if such a thought was quite ridiculous. "Why would you say that?"

"Well the thing is," Ka'ell admitted. "I'm not really supposed to be telling anyone, not even you."

"And why is that?" the queen demanded. It was not normally like her eldest son and heir to keep secrets. So why now?

"Well," the cyclops admitted. "We don't really know why, but it was his request. Something about a reputation to maintain, and not wanting others to know it's from him."

"Not wanting others to know what's from him?" Queen Amphitrite demanded, wondering what on earth her son had to hide.

"His gift to Lord Perseus, of course!" Ka'ell weirdly grinned. "Quite the talent it takes. He plans on surprising him. Contrary to what others might think, he does actually care about his little brother, but he doesn't want Lord Perseus or anyone else to know that. He doesn't even want you and King Poseidon to know. He was going to give it to Percy in secret without Percy knowing. It was supposed to be anonymous. Something about a reputation to maintain."

"A reputation," Amphitrite murmured and shook her head. Of all things, her son had to let his pride get in the way. But it was good to know that he did care for Percy. She was starting to wonder...

But still, it was something she'd have to confront her son about. Reputations were something that Triton might be letting get out of hand for him. After all, he was older and was going to need to set a better example for Percy. She didn't want Percy getting prideful because of Triton's actions.

"Please don't tell anyone!" Ka'ell practically begged her, and at the look on his face and the other cyclops' faces, she couldn't help but feel sorry for him. "He especially doesn't want the king to find out! He'll be embarrassed about it. We technically weren't even supposed to say anything! That's why he had us operate the forges in secret! He'll be mad at us if he finds out! Plus, if you tell him, he'll deny anything about the situation, and he'll know that it was us that told you about it!"

Seeing the pity on their faces, Amphitrite couldn't help but feel some compassion and she agreed to their demands, sighing. "Very well, continue on with his project!"  
Ka'ell grinned widely. "Thank you, my queen!"

And with that, Amphitrite left the forges. As the forges were going to be occupied, she might to have to find something else to get her husband.

(Ka'ell Point of View)

They were all relived when the queen left, but Ka'ell had them wait a little bit of time before getting the trident out again.

"Well that was close," one of his fellow cyclops sighed, and they all started getting back to work.

Ka'ell wiped the sweat off of his forehead and he stared back at the bit of the trident he was working on. "So what now?" one of the cyclops called out to him.

The lead cyclops turned around in confusion. "Huh?"

His colleague that asked merely shrugged. "You just told her that we were making a specialty item that we're not making. She'll notice if it's never delivered. She'll notice if there is not an item that pops up for Prince Perseus. How are we going to cover that up?"

But Ka'ell merely grinned. "Don't forget the contract that we made. They have to pay for any parts and materials. Well consider this a bonus that they have to pay as part of working on the trident. After all, they didn't say that we could only work on the trident. And this is trident related... indirectly."

Suddenly the cyclops grinned, understanding. "More money for us!"

(Luke Point of View)

With Leo's new invention of monster proof cell phones and technology, now everyone had one. And believe me, everyone was scrambling to get one so that they could stay ahead of times and keep in touch with the mortal world, as well as look normal when they were in the mortal world seeing as everyone had one. It was already not fair that the mortals had them and the gods had one, and that because cell phones and other electronics sent out a signal flare to monsters demigods couldn't have one. But thanks to Leo's invention, they no longer had to worry about it. And Leo had made a lot of money off of it too. Becoming a god must have boosted his capabilities.

And so the rule banning electronics on camp grounds had been lifted and many demigods had been excited, and many now enjoyed the privileges of computers, cell phones, and what not.

It all started with a text from Percy. You see, Luke and Percy had once more become friends after Luke had come back from the dead and they hung out together some. So when Percy texted that he was opening a cookie shop with his brother and asked help to spread the word, Luke was more than happy to. In fact he planned to head over that way to see just what they had to offer.

Luke was now in college and was attending college in the demigod city. There were two universities in the city, one in New Greece, and one in New Rome. In it Luke was taking journalism and photography, and he had his trusty camera by his side. His fellow buddy reporter was now tailing him as they decided to head to see the new business. That should make the headlines. How often did you hear of gods starting a business, especially two godly brothers? Especially if they were sea brothers, sons of Poseidon?

He walked through the city, his fellow reporter by his side, taking the long way as they wound through the streets. And when they reached a corner near a parking lot, there it was.

Newly painted signs stood outside, advertising prices and different cookies. Blue cookies seemed to be a specialty of Percy's, Luke noted. A stand that was much like a lemonade stand was set up and behind it was Percy, wearing a t-shirt that must have advertised his new company, and an apron that definitely advertised his new company: Sea Brother's Cookie Shop. He was wearing regular old jeans, and his hair was a mess (not that it usually wasn't).

Stress seemed to be on the young god's face as he yelled: "Fresh cookies! Come get fresh cookies!" People were lined up right and left, waiting to buy cookies, a long line already formed. Once people had purchased, they sat over by a series of tables to eat that Percy and his brother must have set up. Luke wondered who was busing the tables.

At first Luke wondered why on earth Percy was working alone, but that was until he saw a frowning teenage aged boy, not looking much older than Percy. But he seemed to have the family of Poseidon's features, and Luke realized that he was a god and must have been Triton.

But unlike Percy, Triton was frowning and doing absolutely nothing. He merely leaned against a pole that was nearby and stared at Percy, arms folded, clearly having nothing to do with the business.

"Triton!" Percy yelled out, overwhelmed at the sheer number of customers. "I need help here. Go clean those tables off!"

But Triton seemed to do nothing. "Why don't you do it?" he called out in agitation to his brother.

Clearly Triton was used to being served and not serving others. 'What a world class jerk,' Luke thought to himself as he saw Percy overwhelmed and Triton doing nothing but watching, and at one point glancing at what was around the area. 'Poor Percy.'

"Triton!" Percy snapped again, turning around briefly to his brother. "It's called Sea _**Brother's**_ Cookie Shop for a reason! It takes two to manage!"

"Then hire someone!" Triton snapped back. "Why do you expect me to get my hands dirty?"

Luke inched closer, whispering to his reporter, "Are you getting that?"

"Yeah!" his reporter, a young man around his age, a Roman, smiled back. "New business not doing so well!"

Luke watched the scene unfold, walking closer, suddenly somewhat amused.

"I told you!" Percy angrily yelled back, and tensions seemed to rise. He had just finished another transaction and another customer had stepped forward. "We're not hiring anyone! You're plenty capable of taking a wet rag and wiping off the tables!"

"I'm not getting my hands dirty!" Triton protested again, sneering at his younger brother. 'Yep,' Luke thought as he saw this. 'Definitely a world class jerk!'

But at this, Triton seemed to have given Percy the last straw. Percy, enraged, turned around and pointed at his brother, yelling, "You're leaving me to do all the work! Why did you even start the business with me?"

"It was your idea!" Triton yelled back, walking towards Percy.

"And you agreed!" Percy pointed out. But Luke was busy reaching into his backpack, waiting to see what would happen and if it would make news.

"I told you we should hire people!" Triton yelled back, dangerously near a close to exploding Percy. And a lot of power was beginning to roll off of Percy who was barely managing his new abilities. "And yet you won't listen!"

"Because of extra expense and because we're capable of handling it ourselves if you'd just work!"

"I do work!" Triton snapped. "I learned how to do your stupid budgeting!"

"And there's more work to do than that!" Percy hissed, angrily taking off his apron and throwing it to the ground.

Triton took his apron off and threw it down as well as he shouted back. "I'm not doing servant's work!" he got in Percy's face. "And don't expect me to!"

"Well you know what?" Percy sneered, wanting to make a point, and was waving his hands frantically around. All the customers lined up that the two brothers were ignoring watched the incident in mild interest and somewhere in the crowd someone asked, "Are we gonna get a cookie?"

Percy ignored this and instead kept his attention on Triton, not a smart business move, Luke noted. "You know what?" Percy echoed. "I bet that this is what you do all day in the palace, lazing around!"

"Do not!" Triton shoved Percy and Percy's face glowed red. 'Uh-oh!' Luke thought. 'Things are getting interesting.' Nearby his reporter was snickering.

"Really?" Percy counteracted, shoving back and pointing a finger at Triton. "Well I bet you haven't worked a **_day_** in your lazy, rich, sheltered, plump life!" And Luke couldn't help but agree as he watched Triton. "You've never known work because you've never had to before! You've only ever been sheltered in a palace!"

"Have not!" Triton hissed back, and shoved Percy.

"Have too!" Percy shoved back and Luke got his camera out. Things were taking an interesting turn.

"Have not!"

"Have too!"

_**Kaboom!**_ The entire cookie stand exploded in a mushroom of flour and all the customers were caked with whole wheat goodness. Luke, not having been sprayed so bad saw the poor customers' outrageous expressions and couldn't help but start snickering. The two brothers were still fighting despite the fact that their customers were now grumbling.

"Wow!" Luke's reporter watched in amazement in eagerness.

And so Luke turned to his reporter and gauged his reaction before asking, "You thinking what I'm thinking?" His reporter shook his head eagerly and Luke stepped forward, saying the one phrase that caused both brothers to stop fighting and turn to him in horror, still caked and a mess from the exploding cookie stand.

"Say cheese!"

(Poseidon Point of View)

Hades was grumbling, complaining to Poseidon about his son's girlfriend. They were already late to the Olympian council meeting of the day due to the fact that Hades had been taking his time walking slowly to complain to his brother. Apparently Hades had just found out that Nico's girlfriend was an Egyptian demigod, and Hades was not impressed. Poseidon was personally surprised, but upon seeing Hades reaction he couldn't help but sympathize with his nephew and understand why Nico had kept his girlfriend's lineage a secret.

They were walking on Olympus to the grand throne room where the meeting for the Olympian council would take place, and Hades hadn't stopped complaining the whole way, taking solace in his brother's companionship.

"Of all the people that my son has to date, it has to be an Egyptian?" Hades rolled his eyes, continuing his monologue. "And it has to be a forbidden _**immortal**_ Egyptian demigod at that! Sure, their pantheon uses human hosts, but they aren't supposed to let their hosts have children while their inhabiting them! Creating a demigod is illegal for them! And then their pantheon practically praises that illegal act by welcoming her and acting as if nothing happened? And then she has to hold a lot of sway in their court? And then she has to go and accept Nico's courtship? Does Nico really need to date **_that_**?"

Poseidon sighed. He was already worn out from the conversation. "Well it's not the child's fault for what the parents do."

"Still!" Hades continued on, and Poseidon wanted to groan. Then he remembered his son's request for the gods to be more friendly with each other, and that meant patience. Right now, as they were walking up the steps to the throne room, Hades was taking a lot of his patience. "She's an Egyptian! Even if she wasn't all that, Nico still shouldn't be dating her! Of all things, dating an Egyptian!"

"Have you ever thought that maybe you're controlling too much of Nico's life?" Poseidon dryly responded, wanting the conversation to end. He didn't really care who Percy dated and he certainly didn't care who his nieces and nephews dated. As far as he was concerned, it was their decision. "You're sounding a lot like Athena right now." Silently he hoped that Athena didn't hear that. Athena already had a complicated relationship with him and his progeny.

Hades sighed. "Only you, Poseidon. However I am grateful that you are taking the time to listen to me. Not many, except your son, take time to listen to the king of the dead."

At this Poseidon smiled and patted his brother on the back. "It's what family is for," Poseidon firmly replied, believing it more and more. Percy really was a miracle in his life, bringing all this about.

But they froze shortly afterward, having arrived at the throne room, when they heard lots of loud laughter. Poseidon stepped in cautiously, his brother beside him, and saw a newspaper in everyone's hands that everyone seemed to be laughing at.

And Zeus, who was on his throne, stopped laughing and glanced up at Poseidon and Hades. "Oh! Brothers! Nice of you to join us! We're just taking turns reading the front page article out loud!" Zeus waved a newspaper around and Poseidon could have sworn that he thought he saw a picture on the front page of... No! It couldn't be!

Angrily walking forward as everyone began laughing again and snapping a spare copy out of Zeus's hands, the sea king opened the front page in horror to find a picture of his two sons all covered in, was that wheat flour? They were staring in horror at the camera as if the picture had caught them in the middle of an embarrassing fight. Poseidon began shaking in anger and embarrassment and he felt Hades step behind him, addressing the king of the gods. "Zeus, what is this?"

But Zeus ignored him. "Continue reading Ares!" he shouted to his son and Ares grinned.

Poseidon shook with anger, frozen, as Ares continued reading from somewhere in the article, "'After that the customers were covered in flour and began launching complaints at how poor the owners' treatment of them was!'" Laughter ensued and Poseidon was close to bursting at the council in anger. He looked at the picture and though he was in denial that it was them, he knew it was Percy and Triton. The front page headline read: Sea Brother's Cookie Shop, or Sea Brother's Grimm?

"'The owners have not given a response as of yet regarding their fight, but many wonder how long this new 'Grimm' business will last!'" Another round of laughter howled around the chamber and finally Poseidon had had it.

"Zeus!" Poseidon stalked over to his brother and suddenly the entire council went silent as they watched the enraged king of the sea defend his sons. "How dare you? How dare you bring us to the council for this! These are your nephews who have saved your throne many times, and clearly you don't remember! And not only that, but these are my sons you are mocking!"

Poseidon turned around and addressed the council, Hades now seated. "We were brought here to discuss business, were we not? So why are all of you taking time playing games and reading an article from a demigod newspaper?" An uncomfortable silence fell around the chamber and many fidgeted uncomfortably. "Well?" Poseidon demanded, walking the floor, and no one responded. They all looked dead serious now, with the exception of Zeus who still had an amused expression on his face.

Once more, Poseidon rounded on his brother. "And you!" he pointed a finger at Zeus accusingly. "How dare you! You promised Percy that we would get along better!"

A small amused smile formed on Zeus's face. "And yet your son does not honor the agreement he made us make?"

Now Poseidon's face was red, and he looked about ready to slap Zeus. But surprisingly his voice was deadly calm. "We all make mistakes," Poseidon admitted. "My sons included. But at least they _**try**_. I have tried. Hades has tried. Everyone else on the council has tried. But you! _**YOU!**_ You haven't tried once!"

Zeus didn't respond. He merely sat there smiling, seemingly unaffected. But fortunately the worst was over.

"Attention to the council!" Zeus announced and Poseidon sat down, still enraged. He took one last look at the picture of his two sons and the horrified look on their flour covered faces before sighing, listening to Zeus as he began the real meeting.

**I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I tried to put some humor in it. Needless to say that things will get even messier for the brothers in the future... if you get my pun!  
**

**Please read and review!**


	5. Chapter 5: Complications

**I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or Heroes of Olympus.**

Chapter Five: Complications

(Triton Point of View)

To say that Triton was embarrassed didn't even come close to describing the way he felt. That Luke Castellan! The nerve that he had in capturing a picture of them that way!

And so Triton had returned to the palace for yet another embarrassing incident. As he swam down the corridors of the palace, the chunky bits of flower and cookie still stuck to him, the fish and other servants of the palace looking at him strangely, some even daring to laugh, he unexpectedly met his mother, Queen Amphitrite.

She looked at him in shock and horror. "What is that in your hair?" she demanded and Triton blushed, probably for the first time in his life. He had never been embarrassed before. After that question his mother looked around him. "And where's Perseus?"

Triton didn't answer. He merely swam past her to his room.

The next day at breakfast both of the brothers were sitting at both sides of the table that they had occupied the day before, and neither was paying the other any attention. Amphitrite was staring at them curiously, and she seemed to be aware that they were ignoring each other on purpose. She knew something had happened between them, but she didn't know what. Needless to say, she would get the memo later when the mail arrived.

Both brothers were acting as if the other didn't exist. And Triton was still mad at his brother for the incident. Yes, he blamed him. In fact he blamed him for **_everything_**.

"Come now," Amphitrite tried to press them. "You can't go on ignoring each other like this forever."

Triton chuckled without humor. "Sure we can."

But Percy merely pointed an eating instrument that looked similar to a fork only it was two pointed, at Triton. "He can. That's what he does best." Triton merely scowled at this and they went back to ignoring each other.

Amphitrite glanced back and forth between them, the awkward silence filling the water. Finally she asked, "What happened?"

But all she got was both brothers pointing to each other at the same time and saying at the same time, "Ask him." Then the brothers went back to ignoring each other.

Amphitrite was at a loss for words. Here they were, both brothers were so similar than either of them realized, and they couldn't even get along. And Triton was in no mood to inform her. So when she told them, "Well don't carry this attitude into training," Triton merely ignored her and Percy said, "What training?" even though Triton knew that Percy knew perfectly well what she was talking about.

"With your brother," Amphitrite responded rather sharply.

But Percy decided to play innocent which only got on Triton's nerves. "What brother? Tyson's away at camp." Triton clenched his fists at this. 'Well, if one can play this game, two can,' he thought and continued to ignore Percy.

"Mother," Triton got her attention after she was done glaring at Percy. "I have go to the city today. Some of the people were requesting my presence."

"And what about Perseus's training?" Amphitrite sharply responded and Triton gave her the most innocent expression.

"Who's training?" Triton asked, getting up already.

"You're brother," Amphitrite sharply responded, getting up to stop him no doubt.

But Triton turned to her innocently. "What brother? I have no brother other than Tyson who is at camp," he responded, stealing Percy's words at which he was satisfied when he saw out of the corner of his eye, Percy clench his fists. A small smile lit his lips and Percy seemed to do his best to ignore him. But it was too late. Triton knew he had gotten under Percy's skin.

But Amphitrite sighed in exasperation. "You're not going anywhere," she pointed at her eldest son, and when Percy got up she pointed at him to. "Neither of you are going anywhere until you tell me what's going on between you."

"I apologize, mother," Percy politely said. "But I'm already late for a date with my girlfriend and she'll kill me if I am any later. I think that it would be impolite for me to keep her waiting any longer." And with that he got up and began walking away.

"Funny," Triton said out loud, and Percy stopped when her heard the next part. "I am not aware of anyone in the family who dates children of Athena. And I'm glad I'm not related to anyone that does."

Percy tensed and turned around. "Now that's enough, both of you!" Amphitrite tried to tell them but it was too late.

"Well," Percy sneered, retorting back angrily. And it was at this that Triton knew that he had taken his insults too far. Jeering at Percy was one thing, but insulting his girlfriend whom he loved dearly was another. "I may be the son of the sea king," Percy snapped. "But I'm glad I'm not related to a fish who can't tell the difference between pi and pie! It truly takes the small brains of a fish not to! Anyone who has brains is better than a fish! And she's more considerate than you ever were!" After that he whipped around and left.

Triton stood stunned. He knew that he had deserved that comment but he hadn't expected Percy to be harsh. For the first time in his life he felt hurt from something Perseus had done, and he wasn't proud of it. "I-I didn't mean to..." he stammered, at a loss of words on how to apologize.

But when he glanced at Amphitrite he saw that she was angry. "Now you've done it!" she snapped and Triton didn't know how to respond. "Are you happy?"

Truth be told, Triton wasn't happy. Swimming away in embarrassment, he went after Percy to find him charging up towards the surface. "Percy, wait!" Triton called, wanting to apologize. But Percy didn't give any response that he had heard him even though Triton was sure he had. Swimming harder and using the currents to give him speed he caught up with his brother. "Perseus," he begged, reaching his hand to grab Percy's arm to stop him. But Percy merely pulled his arm out of his grip.

"Percy, I'm sorry," Triton tried but Percy merely whipped around and Triton could see the anger in his arms.

"Don't!" Percy growled. "I don't believe you no matter what!" Those words struck Triton hard and he began to feel even more regret for what he had said. "You don't like me, I get it! I do! Insulting me is one thing, but taking your issues with me out on my girlfriend? That's way too far!" And with that he whipped around and broke through the surface.

Triton went above the surface as well, pursuing after Percy. "Wait Percy," he begged but Percy continued to ignore him, using his powers to push his body towards New York. "I was harsh," Triton admitted. "But I didn't mean to take it out on Annabeth! I was mad! Percy!"

As the boy continued to not listen Triton was at a loss of what to do. "What do you want me to do?" he cried aloud, not sure how to respond to the former demigod.

But to his surprise Percy stopped and turned to him. There was no friendliness in his eyes. "I want you to go away," he coldly retorted and once more swam away, leaving Triton in the middle of the ocean, fish tails swishing.

(A few minutes later)

(Triton Point of View)

When Triton reappeared at the palace he saw his mother swimming in circles, somewhat agitated. But when she noticed Triton, she stopped pacing, her face somewhat harsh, but as she caught Triton's expression her eyes softened. She sighed and swam to meet him. Her son was in his merman form, and he had a rather dejected expression on his face. "I tried," he whispered, not even meeting his mother's eyes. "But he won't listen."

Another sigh was heard from his mother. "You were rather harsh with him, you know," she murmured softly. "And from what I can tell it was you who started this all to begin with anyways."

"Was not!" Triton immediately snapped, but then bowed his head at the harsh glare that his mother gave him, which softened almost immediately.

"Regardless of whose fault it was," she continued, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Your the elder son and you should be setting a good example. Besides, I know that you have a tendency to be harsh and abrasive with him. Percy doesn't respond well to that kind of treatment I noticed."

Triton nodded after an a calming breath. "Give him time," his mother reassured him. "Percy tends to be rather forgiving. He's just mad and needs time to cool down."

"You're right," Triton confessed, glancing at his mother before swimming and sitting down in his throne. Sitting in a chair with human legs felt awkward for him, but sitting with his two fish tails never did. It felt more natural. "He just needs time," Triton admitted, thinking to the mad expression Percy held when he had insulted his brother's girlfriend. He was very protective of Annabeth, that was for sure.

Amphitrite had sat in her throne as well, and Triton noticed with nervous joy that she hadn't noticed the missing trident. Maybe she did think that father had taken it with him to Olympus. But he also nervously noted that she seemed to be prepared to give him a speech. He always knew when she was ready to launch into one of her monologues.

Ever since he was little, his mother would lecture him on how a prince should act and how a prince should walk. No doubt she may end up giving Percy those lessons, but she had mellowed and softened up since then, no longer being as strict, so she may not. That and she must have sensed that Percy brought change that was often good, and to teach him otherwise and preserve traditions that didn't need to be preserved wouldn't necessarily be wise.

When Triton was little, she used to school him on how to sit on his throne, to sit up straight, be gracious when one of his people presented him with a gift, and to have manners. It was she that told him the duties of a prince and what a prince should do and shouldn't do. Perhaps in the end it was she who instilled in him that it was beneath him to get his hands dirty, though she had never exactly said or taught him that. A tiny bit of that attitude had been impressed in him when he was little and Triton had merely taken it a step further. He had taken it so far that there were things that he wouldn't do because he was a prince.

He remembered his lessons with father and being trained to be a prince/hero by Aphros and Bythos, molded to be the kind of person the people of his kingdom would love. After all, who wouldn't want their prince to be a hero?

He remembered his battles and his first trophies of war when he was younger, but he looked much the same now with the difference in the style of clothing that he wore that had somewhat changed with time and as fashions had changed. But as he was immortal he was forever young. But as he paraded and swam down the streets to the palace after the war his people had greeted him as hero and for once he had known the glory of battle was short lived, only to be replaced with grief as they mourned the fallen of their people. It was in his first battles that he had first experienced loss, more specifically the loss of his best friend. They were in Elysium now (all the dead went to Lord Hades) and for a while he had wondered if his uncle would allow him to visit. But that was before he understood that he would never have that right. To this day Triton still visited his grave.

But he remembered the lecture his mother had given him then. "Keep your chin up," she told him. "Even in grief you must still look like a prince." And he had done as he had been told. Oh how he wanted to cry but he couldn't. It wasn't becoming a prince, according to his mom. But perhaps she had been wrong. Perhaps she had been wrong. What would she say now?

"Triton," Amphitrite murmured, and Triton knew the teaching monologue was coming. "When your father asked you to teach your brother, I know that you didn't want to. I know that you have your issues with your father in regards to Percy. But whatever issues you have need to be discussed with your father, not Percy. Leave Percy out of it. It was not his fault that he was born."

"I know mother," Triton murmured softly. Only recently since Percy's arrival had he been coming to realize that and only recently had he been coming to realize how wrong he was about Percy. He still got aggravated with the boy but it was mainly to do with how Percy thought and handled the situations. He handled things in a completely new and for him a completely unorthodox manner that it completely challenged the way he thought, and Triton wasn't sure he liked that.

Amphitrite sighed again. "Perhaps pairing the two of you together for training wasn't the best idea," she admitted. "But we didn't really have any other choice, or so we thought. Percy's so restless and full of energy that though he likes the sea he doesn't like to be contained in the sea. We didn't think he'd be able to handle being stuck here for a couple of weeks and then some as he began his training. That's why we wanted to train him as soon as possible, to avoid things. However," she stopped and Triton couldn't help but gulp as she became more stern immediately. "I can't help but notice that you didn't follow our instructions to keep him in the sea."

He didn't want to know what the look on his face was. He knew he probably looked guilty, or like a little kid who had been caught doing something he wasn't supposed to. And honestly, he had no answer. Finally the only thing he could say to break the silence was, "Well, you know Percy. He's restless, beyond restless, and not even I can contain him."

"Have you even tried?" Amphitrite asked him, questioning him more sternly.

"Yes?" Triton replied, not daring to face his mother who was sitting right beside him, but even he questioned the truth of his reply.

"Triton?" Amphitrite replied again and now Triton was irritated with Percy once more for putting him in this situation.

"Well," Triton began, looking at his hands and not meeting his mother's stare. "I guess I justified his... roaming around... a little. I mean, I've never until this point left him unattended, but since he seems to not want my presence..." He trailed off more, not sure what to say.

"Justified how?" Amphitrite calmly demanded, but Triton knew her well enough by now to hear the discipline behind those words.

Triton looked at her and sighed. "In all honestly, mother, I've made sure his powers are in check. He didn't want to be trapped, and since I couldn't have kept him here if he didn't want to be here, I decided the next best thing would be to attend him and to make sure that nothing happened."

"Despite the danger to the mortals?" Amphitrite sharply reprimanded him and Triton remained calm.

"Could you have kept him in the sea if he didn't want to be there?" Triton turned the question onto her, and for a moment his mother appeared to be surprised. She nervously fidgeted in her seat, something that she normally didn't do since she was a queen.

There was a long uncomfortable silence and then Amphitrite admitted softly, "No." That told Triton all he needed to hear and Amphitrite seemed to have a little more understanding after that. "Perhaps you did do what was best," she mused as she looked at him. "The sea does not like to be restrained and the next best thing is channeling that pent up energy." Triton smiled at that. Percy seemed to have that in spades. Reckless, but with a purpose.

"Very well," his mother conceded and Triton knew that he had won an argument. "I know that he doesn't want company so you'll just have to make sure that he doesn't notice you."

This stunned Triton. Was she really asking him this? "You want me to spy on him?" he questioned his mother incredulously.

"Not spy," was his mother's turn to justify. "I just want you to make sure he's all right and keep an eye on him." As Triton sighed, exasperated that he once again had to play babysitter, his mother added, "And don't worry. I know that your father gave you these orders, but I'll make sure it doesn't reach his ears." Triton smiled gratefully at this. That would make this much easier when it came to the trident, but his face fell as he remembered that it was too late due to Luke's picture that had no doubt "gone viral" as the mortal world put it.

He made sure to ask cautiously so that his mother wouldn't suspect anything. "And what happens if he does find out?" was his careful question.

Amphitrite studied him for a moment and Triton knew that she was measuring him up and measuring his comment, trying to figure out what it meant. "Why would you say that?" she suddenly asked.

"Well," Triton vaguely replied, glad that when he had sworn on the river Styx there had been preexisting excuses that he could give. "Percy and I do fight sometimes..." he trailed off, not wanting to say more.

The queen was silent for a moment and then she shrugged as if it were nothing. "Your father would probably justify you, knowing you and Percy. He's aware that Percy has a lot of energy, and he's aware that he doesn't really want to be here." She seemed sad at the last part and Triton felt a bit of compassion on her. He would have to have a talk with his brother, when he was in the listening mood that is.

Once more, Amphitrite glanced at him and Triton did his best to have a neutral expression on his face. "Why do you let him go to the surface anyways?" was her question and once more Triton was glad that they, or rather he, had prepared an excuse before. Granted, Percy didn't like the excuse and would probably be mad when he heard that Triton had used it, but what else could he do?

"Because he won't train and refuses to otherwise," Triton put out there and Amphitrite nodded. While this wasn't in Percy's nature (Triton had noticed that much during his time with him) hopefully Amphitrite wouldn't notice since she hadn't raised him. Triton was counting on that.

"The sea doesn't like to be contained," she commented and shook her head, seemingly at Percy's foolishness. "And he does seem rather uncomfortable with your presence." Silently, Triton wondered how much of that was true. Once upon a time he would have liked to hear that, but now he wished and hoped that it weren't true because if it were it would cause more problems than solve them. Percy certainly was a difficult case, and a difficult teenager to manage.

As Triton got up to fulfill his mother's request to keep an eye on Percy she got up and put her arms gently around him. "Not yet," she murmured. And she led him back to his throne as he sat down, somewhat upset that he had to stay a little longer. She smiled in amusement and Triton was wondering if she was thinking that Percy wasn't the only one that was hard to control and manage. "We still have one more thing to discuss."

When Triton raised an eyebrow at this, Amphitrite retired to her throne once more and turned to face him. "So," she began softly, and Triton saw a smile on her face. Immediately he was cautious. "We need to discuss your attitude."

"My attitude?" Triton cried out. "What's wrong with my attitude?"

Amphitrite once again smiled, this time in a knowing way. "So," she began, and Triton watched her carefully as she faced forward, an amused expression on her face. "The other day, I came across something interesting. I was contemplating what to get my husband for our anniversary when I decided to come to the forges and you know what I saw?"

At this Triton tensed and expected the worse to come. Had the cyclops ratted them out? What had Ka'ell done and said? "No," Triton responded, folding his arms. But to his surprise she was watching him.

"The specialty forges were open, and according to the cyclops, you gave them permission to operate them."

"I never-" Triton protested only to be cut off when his mother glared at him. 'That's it!' Triton thought in fear. 'We're done for! She's found out.'

But the next part that she said was something quite unexpected. "What's this about a special gift your making for Percy's arrival on Atlantis?"

Triton was shocked. That was completely unexpected. His mouth hung open and he protested, "I never-" only to be cut off by his mother.

"They said you would say that," she admitted. "They said that you didn't want it getting out due to some, what was it they said? Reputation to maintain?" She glanced at Triton and the god could tell that his mother believed what the cyclops said with absolute sincerity. But truth be told, it could have been worse. Clearly she hadn't found out about the trident, which was a relief. Still, he was mad at the cyclops for giving his mother ideas.

His mother smiled softly. "You claimed you didn't like Percy, but now I know that that's a lie. You care for your brother, you just don't want to admit it." Triton kept his mouth shut and let his mother rant. As he considered, it was ten times better than her finding about the trident. Maybe a hundred times. And maybe, just maybe, he could play along and lead her train of thought somewhere else like with the accounting scrolls. 'Worth a shot,' he told himself, using a modern idiom and phrase. 'May as well play with it. But I am _**definitely**_ going to have a chat with Ka'ell about this latter.'

He waited for his mother to continue her talk. "And this leads us back to your attitude problem, your reputation problem. Triton," she questioned and then turned to him with sincerity on her face. "Do you really need to let your pride get above you own family? Percy is your brother. Perhaps, instead of belittling him because of your pride, you should acknowledge that you've accepted him into the family."

"I don't want him here!" Triton lied, playing with what was given him. And then he added truthfully for effect, "There is no gift to that brat! Those cyclops are just giving excuses!" He huffed and folded his arms, looking in complete denial, and his mother rolled her eyes.

"Yes, well say what you want! I know it's not true, and truth be told I'm glad."

"I'm not-" Triton began again only to be cut off by his mother.

"Whatever you do, stop denying it, and I want you to get your pride under control. Percy is already an innocent soul as it is (Triton scoffed at this at which his mother glared) and we don't need him being tainted by being taught your pride. He is supposed to be changing Olympus and the gods and he can't very well do that if he's being taught by your example. From now on I want you to set a better example."

"Yes mother," Triton grumbled, doing his best to look like it wasn't true, and Amphitrite seemed to buy it.

"You may go now," she smiled at him and Triton immediately took advantage of that and launched himself towards the surface. The last thing that he wanted to discuss with his mother was more of his so-called "reputation".

That, and he could only hope that when Percy came back to Atlantis he would be more reasonable so that Triton could talk to him. He wanted the chance to apologize for what he had said. They had much to discuss.

Especially with what Ka'ell did.

(Somewhere on the surface in the city of New York)

(Percy Point of View)

Annabeth had met Percy at the beach since she knew that he wasn't able to flash anywhere yet. She had a small small on her face when she noticed him emerging from the sea waves. It was a sight Percy knew that had become endearing to her.

It was hard to think that only a few years ago they would probably never have dated. In fact, it would have been unheard of children of Athena and Poseidon getting along, let alone dating. Indeed, this was a new development in a long while between the sea and Athena's children. That and this led to a greater friendship and alliance between the Poseidon cabin and the Athena cabin, especially in capture the flag.

Indeed, Poseidon and Athena would take turns leading their side of the team. That, and Athena and Poseidon always allied together (especially since Annabeth led the Athena cabin and Percy led the Athena cabin and they were dating). In fact, everyone knew by now not to ask which side Athena and Poseidon cabins were taking because by now it was practically a give in. And they won most of the time because of their alliance.

As Percy walked up to Annabeth he gave her a quick peck on the cheek. 'Thank goodness she's not a maiden goddess,' he thought as he looked at his beautiful girlfriend. He really did love her.

"How are you?" he murmured softly to her, taking her hand and they began to walk along the beach and then along then to a small wooded area beyond the beach.

"I'm fine," Annabeth smiled, glad to see him. Percy could practically feel the power emanating off of her.

They walked in silence through the wood for some time, saying nothing, taking in the scenery. Of all the places Grover had started rebuilding nature, New York was the first. They knew that this was one of the woods he had worked on, and it was absolutely gorgeous.

"I wonder how Grover is," Percy said softly, voicing his thoughts and thinking on his friend.

"He misses us," Annabeth admitted. No doubt she had talked to him recently. "Thank goodness satyrs live twice the normal life span of humans at least." Percy nodded. He didn't want to be saying good-bye to his friend any time soon. But he knew that he would eventually, and truth be told, it wasn't fair. He'd rather have Grover say good-bye to him than the other way around.

Percy looked around at the landscape more, admiring what his friend had done. "Thank goodness when I'm done with training I'll be able to see him again," he replied. Granted, the last time he had seen him was three weeks ago. Grover was also going to be holding some classes for the demigods that summer, meaning they would have more of a chance to be with him. That and he was at camp half blood more often now that things had calmed down some.

Annabeth smiled at that. "I hear that he's improved in a lot of things since then. I hear his music playing has gotten better, thank goodness." She and Percy chuckled when Annabeth said this. "That and I hear that his woodland magic has gotten better."

"Thank goodness," Percy retorted at which Annabeth glared at him.

"Not funny," she sharply reprimanded him at which Percy glanced at her in shock.

"What?" her responded. "What did I do?" But Annabeth merely rolled her eyes. "You did the same thing," Percy pointed out and Annabeth rolled her eyes again.

"Never mind," Annabeth sighed, upset that her boyfriend didn't seem to get it. But Percy didn't seem to understand what he did wrong anyways. And with that they began to sit in silence, soaking up the scenery. It was truly a peaceful area.

Yes, it was peaceful as they sat there for a few minutes. That was until Annabeth brought up the forbidden topic. "So," she ventured carefully, eyeing Percy warily. "What is this 'Sea Brother's Cookie Shop'?"

Percy froze immediately. "How did you know about that?" he exclaimed to her, looking in shock. That was before he mentally slapped his face as he remembered that it was probably public knowledge as it was stationed in New Greco-Rome (the name of the entire city that included the joint area known as the commons area, New Greece, and New Rome parts of the city). That, and Annabeth was at the city often, especially New Greece.

But Annabeth merely rolled her eyes and waved her hands, bringing up a newspaper.

His heart beat fast as he looked at the picture. That couldn't be... no, unfortunately that was a picture of him and Triton all covered in flour and burnt cookie dough. He quickly snatched the picture out of her hand and then began to read it, his mind going one hundred miles an hour. When he was done, he threw the paper ten feet and used his powers to incinerate it mid air, and he was using the techniques that Triton had taught him. His body was shaking in anger and the ground was trembling in an earthquake due to it.

"Calm down," Annabeth murmured softly and Percy took deep breaths to try to get his powers under control.

"That little wretch!" Percy gritted his teeth. "He has the nerve to do that to me and my brother?"

"Well," Annabeth admitted. "You have to admit, it was kind of funny. In fact, it made headlines. It was the laugh of the century."

"Yeah, thanks for that," was Percy's sarcastic response as he got up. He walked down the trail to calm himself down thinking, 'Look at what Grover did. Focus on Grover. Focus on what he achieved with this piece of land here.' After all, he didn't think that Grover would appreciate it if he accidentally ruined all his hard work just because he got angry.

Annabeth walked by his side. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I didn't mean it like that. I only meant that you should lighten up, you know, not take it too seriously. Besides, what were you thinking when you took your brother as a business partner?"

At this, Percy froze again. "W-well," he stammered, suddenly nervous. "I was thinking about showing him the mortal world, so that he could, you know, lighten up a bit?" He gave a nervous glance towards Annabeth and noticed that she didn't quite believe him. "Fine!" he sighed, his shoulders sagging some. "It beat shipping him off to Puerto Rico, but don't think that he's off that hook," he tried a different way, pointing a finger at Annabeth, and as her expression softened, he noticed that she believed him, thank goodness. She didn't need to know the real reason.

They walked along, further into the forest and into the wild, miles away from the beach at this point, and miles away from the busy New York city, but truth be told, they could still see some of it in the distance when they reached a clearing on a hill. Percy sighed, walking back into the woods, Annabeth by his side, and when Percy knelt down and picked a flower for her, she giggled when he handed it to her, and she put it in her hair. Everything seemed perfect.

That was until couple minutes later when their completely peaceful date was ruined by the presence of someone who was clearly trying to mask that they were there. Annoyance immediately entered Percy, but he did his best to act like nothing was up. "Come," he took Annabeth's hand and immediately led her quickly to the side.

"What are you doing, Percy?" she questioned, but Percy had no intention of answering. What he wanted to know was how long he had been trailed for, and what said god had heard. And truth be told, he had a pretty good idea of who it was.

Percy led them behind the tree and put a hand on Annabeth's mouth, shaking his head indicating that she should remain silent. When he made some hand signals with his hand and pointed to a potential trail, she nodded in understanding and arranged the trail so that it made as if they had gone further.

Said tracker seemed to fall for it, and as he emerged beyond the tree, completely ignoring them, Percy ran up and tackled Triton to the ground, pinning his arms behind him.

Triton fell to the ground with an, "Oooof!", and when he struggled and had his arms pinned behind him, Percy made himself known as the attacker by snapping, "Triton! What are you doing here! This is a private date! Don't you know what 'private' means?"

As Percy got off of him and let him stand up, going to Annabeth's side who had her arms folded in disapproval, Triton straightened himself up so that he looked like a prince of the sea, snapping his fingers to get the dirt off of him. He was not nervous one bit, nor was he deterred by what Percy had done. 'Arrogant fool,' Percy thought, more annoyed and angry, the slightest forms of tremors starting deep underground, but not enough to be sensed by anyone, especially those on the surface.

"Hello, Perseus," Triton greeted, keeping a straight face, and Percy's fists tightened at the use of his full name. How dare he! How dare he have the guts to do that after everything that he had done! "Annabeth," Triton greeted, but at least his posture betrayed more curiosity than hostility towards her.

"Triton," Annabeth greeted calmly, but there was annoyance on her face. "And just what do you think you're doing here?" The last part came out more forcefully than the first as she voiced her displeasure at his intrusion, repeating Percy's earlier demands of him. Her eyes narrowed some as she sized him up.

"Yes," Percy sneered some and Annabeth hit him afterwords for being hostile. "What _**are**_ you doing here?"

"I was told to keep an eye on you," he truthfully told them, and Percy wanted to roll his eyes. Here his brother was, acting like his babysitter! He didn't need a babysitter!

"I had Annabeth!" he yelled and the ground began trembling on the surface. "What, you're insulting _**both**_ of us and saying that _**she**_ couldn't look out for me? You're saying that she wasn't _**capable**_ of looking out for me? Is that it?"

Triton seemed to fidget uncomfortably for the first time, and Percy could tell that he'd done a number on him. What was Triton holding back, anyways? "No," he carefully responded, as if he were trying not to aggravate Percy anymore. But it was too late. He already was aggravated.

"Then what are you saying?" Percy snapped more, and the ground shook more.

"Percy," Annabeth warned and she put a hand on his shoulder, calming Percy down, the trembling stopping.

As Percy took a deep breath and the ground stopped shaking, he couldn't help but notice that Triton was watching him, as if he were noticing that his presence was causing Percy to be more out of control.

"How long?" Percy closed his eyes and asked, wanting a direct answer from his brother. "How long have you been following us?"

As Triton seemed to hesitate, Percy could tell that the answer his brother was going to give him wasn't going to be to his liking. "For a while," Triton finally admitted, and he was clearly watching Percy, monitoring his reaction.

And for once Percy was deathly calm. "How long is a while?" he asked as he deadpanned, trying to keep both his emotions and powers under control.

But instead an amused expression twitched on Triton's lips and Percy watched his brother carefully, an almost challenging expression on his face. He stepped closer until they were very close and Annabeth was eyeing Percy to, wanting to make sure that the boy god didn't do anything stupid.

As no answer came, Percy calmly asked again, "Well?" and Triton narrowed his eyes some.

"What's this about Puerto Rico?" Triton asked and Percy nearly froze. He had heard it.

"Oh," Percy nervously responded and ran his hands through his hair for effect before he unexpectedly hurled his fist at Triton's face and Triton landed on the ground hard, crying out. Percy then proceeded to chant something in Greek before he hit Triton again and Triton was rendered unconscious. "And that's for eavesdropping and everything else!" Percy shouted at the unconscious form of his brother before he turned back to Annabeth who was stunned, too frozen to do anything.

Finally she shook her head and pulled herself out of it. "Percy, what are you doing?" she asked cautiously as Percy pulled out some enchanted rope courtesy of the Hecate cabin and began binding Triton, then pulling out enchanted rope, courtesy of the twenty-first Nome and a gift from Carter and Sadie Kane, then bound Triton in them.

"Greek, Roman, and Egyptian enchanted bindings? Really?" Annabeth complained as she came up to him. Then her eyes widened in surprise as Percy pulled out his first bag as it dawned on her what he was doing. "You're shipping him to Puerto Rico? Really?"

"Actually, I changed my mind," Percy admitted as he stuffed Triton in the Egyptian enchanted bag. "I'm sending him to Bolivia." As he glanced at Annabeth's surprised expression, he said. "And I never swore on the river Styx that I wouldn't send him _**there**_. Besides, I only said on the river Styx that I wouldn't send him to Puerto Rico that day. It's beyond that day now."

"And so your sending him now?" Annabeth folded her arms, but to Percy's surprised she wasn't preventing him. She must really have been annoyed with Triton if she wasn't hindering his progress.

"You want to help?" Percy offered her, deciding to try his luck. "After all, no matter what, you're my accomplice because you're here. You may as well help me."

"Fine!" she snapped and conceded. Then she helped him stuff the unconscious Triton who had been bound and hog tied with the enchanted cords and an extra non-enchanted cord, in the enchanted Egyptian bag, Triton having been magically enchanted to stay unconscious for about twelve hours. Man, he had to love Carter and Sadie Kane for giving the Egyptian ropes and Egyptian bag to him impromptu when he first came up with the idea. Of course he never mentioned that he was using it to keep his brother contained as he shipped him clear outside the US...

But on the bright side it was magically enchanted to contain a god. Whether it would work for Greco-Roman gods was another thing.

Oh well. He was double packaging Triton anyways with a Greek enchanted bag (courtesy of Hecate cabin also) and so that should work if the Egyptian bag didn't. Not that the Hecate cabin knew why he needed it as he had never told them...

As Annabeth helped him stuff the now bagged Triton in a Greek enchanted bag, she raised her eyebrows. "Aren't you going a little too overboard?" she questioned.

But Percy shrugged. "Better safe than sorry," was all that he replied, and he couldn't help but notice how angry Annabeth seemed with Triton. She had to be angry at Triton, or rather furious, to do something like this. But then again when Percy had been complaining to Annabeth about Triton as they were on their date as he told her what was happening (minus the trident incident of course), he had mentioned to Annabeth what Triton had said about her. That must have set her off.

When they were done Annabeth summoned a shipping form and Percy filled it out, being rather vague as he just wrote 'China', thinking of a bigger place to ship Triton.

"China?" Annabeth echoed and Percy merely shrugged.

"It's a big place, " Percy explained. "Easy to get lost." And with that he felt like he had explained everything.

Putting a few golden drachmas plus extra for the shipment in small bag and then attaching it to the Greek bag that Triton was packed in, he watched with a small satisfaction and a smirk as the bag went poof!

That was until a few minutes later it backfired by Hermes appearing with the special shipment package behind him.

"Lord Hermes," Percy greeted, rubbing his hands nervously together.

"Percy, Annabeth," a confused Hermes greeted as he looked down at the shipment paper again. He showed them the slip and then told them, "What do you want to send something to China for?" he asked incredulously and confusion. "And you're going to have to be a little more specific than just 'China'."

If Percy wasn't giddy before he was now. "Oh, I don't care! Just make sure it's out in the middle of nowhere and far away from civilization!" he responded and Hermes looked even more confused.

"But it's outside our panthe-" Hermes began and then corrected himself as Percy looked up curiously. "Never mind, you'll learn," was all he said, though Percy and Annabeth exchanged knowing looks as they had both known already that there were other gods and other pantheons out there. They had already met two as mortals already: Egyptian and Mayan.

"But what do you want to send it there for?" Hermes asked again a little too curious, and Percy decided to play on a level with something Hermes would understand.

"Prank," was all Percy responded with a grin and Hermes immediately smiled. Percy knew that the god was willing to help anyone with a prank.

"It will cost extra to ship there since it's out of our..."

"Pantheon?" Annabeth put in with a smirk and Hermes looked to her in surprise.

"Well, as demigods we'd already met the Egyptian pantheon and the house of life, and then there was a nasty confrontation with some Mayan gods," Percy waved off, not bothering to explain further and Hermes narrowed his eyes when Percy mentioned Egyptian.

"When you say 'Egyptian'..." Hermes trailed off in hint.

"You mean did we meet Thoth?" Percy innocently asked, a little too innocently actually. "Yes, we did, and no we don't believe his story."

"Ah," Hermes nodded more satisfied. "Well, you were going to get the memo as gods eventually, but I see that isn't necessary."

Percy handed Hermes the extra coins needed and then tossed the god a bag filled with drachma and denari on top of that. "For your silence," Percy explained when Hermes looked back to him surprised. "On both topics and on this whole incident."

"Ah!" Hermes grinned at his attempt to cover up the prank. Clearly he didn't know what the prank was...

"And we don't care if we have to go to orientation for the different pantheons, after all we could still learn a lot," Annabeth put in, getting into the joke.

Hermes nodded once more. "Well, I'm off!" And he saluted them before disappearing with the bag.

Percy basked in the sunlight, feeling better now that he had gotten rid of his no-good brother. "Well," he murmured with a rather wide grin. "That went well. Revenge is sweet!"

He sat down on the ground and Annabeth sat beside him, grinning is well. Then, suddenly, she sat straight up. "Oh, gosh!" she exclaimed, looking rather panicked.

"What?" Percy asked, annoyed and somewhat concerned.

Annabeth merely looked into the distance. "We forgot to put on a tracking device so we could find him afterwords!"

Percy froze. In all his planning he had never considered retrieval! But he shrugged. 'Oh well,' he thought. 'Triton will just have to find his way back, even if it takes one thousand years.'

(Twelve hours later)

(Triton Point of View)

His head hurt. In fact, everything hurt.

Triton groaned as he came to, feeling for some reason trapped and confined. As he tried to move to get into a more comfortable position he suddenly felt the restraints on his hands and human legs.

His eyes snapped open in realization and panic and he found himself in darkness. "What the..." he trailed off as he felt an unusual fabric all around him. He tried to move once more and found himself unable to. 'How?' he asked himself, trying to wiggle more. 'It's almost like a... No! It can't be!' he moved around more and felt the fabric with his bound hands. 'It's a bag!' His eyes widened in realization.

He thought back to what had happened before he went unconscious and to his surprise the memories were kind of fuzzy. But as he thought more the memories slowly came back. He remembered trailing his brother at his mother's request, but he also remembered being tackled by his brother. Clearly Percy wasn't that stupid and had at least realized that he was being followed. And Triton had tried so hard to mask his godly aura, without success apparently. But then again he had never been good at that, but he would never admit it.

Then he remembered getting interrogated by his brother, being careful to not aggravate the boy anymore, as he might be more unpredictable, and he remembered being unable to calm Percy down and get his powers in control. In fact, Triton realized with shame that _**he**_ had been making things worse by merely being there.

He remembered asking Percy about what he meant by Puerto Rico and being hit and knocked hard unexpectedly on a whim, being caught by surprise as he hadn't anticipated Percy doing that. He remembered being caught by a second blow that he hadn't been expecting either, and fading into black when suddenly he tensed, eyes even wider. 'He wouldn't, would he?' he thought, even though he knew the answer. Percy had been totally serious about sending him to Puerto Rico.

Sudden anger filled Triton that his brother would do something like this. "Percy!" he yelled furious, as he realized what the bindings on his hands and feet were. 'Is that rope?' Part of his consciousness asked, but the main part of him was angry. Whatever they had done to him, they had caused all the parts split off from him and separate to be confined in that single form where he now was, so it wasn't like he could access another part of him to warn someone what had happened and to ask for some help even though it would have been undignified and embarrassing.

But another more reasonable part of him went over everything that had happened for the last few days and he began to realize that maybe it was his fault, or at least some of it. After all, if he was in Percy's situation, perhaps he would have lashed out like Percy did. He might have responded the same way. Percy was fairly angry when he had left, and Triton had been stupid enough to follow his mother's advice and find Percy when the boy clearly didn't want anything to do with him at that moment. Could he really blame him? And the fact that Annabeth had helped or hadn't done anything to stop him suggested that she knew what was going on and had probably heard the insult that Triton had given Percy for her. So in the end he couldn't blame her either. Triton had brought this on himself.

His anger died down and instead he began to try to think of a way out of this situation. While he didn't appreciate being hog tied and sent to some foreign country, at least he knew that Percy had been somewhat lenient and patient with him. If he knew the boy, he could have done much worse but didn't have the heart to. He was just merely trying to make a point and vent out his frustrations at the same time.

'I haven't been a very good brother, have I?' he thought to himself and Triton sighed, trying to think of a way to fix the situation after he got out of this mess and this bag. Doing his best to undo the knots weren't working, and trying to cut them didn't work either. If anything, they seemed to tighten.

"They must be enchanted," Triton voiced aloud as he realized the truth. With that, he began muttering in ancient Greek, doing his best to use the magic that all gods possessed. When that didn't work he switched to Latin for it to have no effect also.

After that he tried to chant his way out of the bag and nothing worked. He attempted to use his godly mind communication and found that was blocked, so he wasn't surprised when he tried to use his sea communication and found that that was also blocked. He sighed, relaxing his muscles and instead he chose to take a rest. They had sure done a very good job in covering all the bases, that was for sure.

His mind wandered and he drifted back to some memories of before when he was little, long before Percy even existed. His father was teaching him how to use his newly given trident and he looked like a seven or eight year old. "You hold it like this," Poseidon told him, correcting his grip on the trident, and Triton smiled up at him.

The scene shifted and he was practicing sitting on his throne. His mother had been schooling him in this for hours, and he remembered how stupid he thought it was. His mother wanted nothing but perfection from him. "Sit up straight!" she charged him and Triton immediately tried to be taller in his chair as he watched his mother pace in front of him as she examined him. His fish tail legs were swishing and she demanded, "And hold your fins still!"

Once more his mind wandered, first to his first battle, and the glory parade back to the palace afterwords, and then to the time when the first demigod child of his father's had been born. He remembered how disgusted he felt, embarrassed and even jealous as it seemed his father put all the joy in that child, leaving less time for him.

He vaguely remembered his godly sisters after that, the first not reaching adulthood and the second fading after living a short life. She had been married young, as had been the custom with the girls at that time, and her marriage had fallen apart, leaving her in grief and to fade. Since then Amphitrite had not given birth once, being too grieved to be a mother again. Though they hadn't lived long, his time with each of his full blooded sisters had been precious and the pain of loosing them came back to him. A tear was shed and fell down, and Triton found himself grieving for them again.

His mind traveled once more and it skipped a few centuries to the time of the Renaissance. He remembered the demigod children his father had had then, various boys and girls, most not even reaching it to adulthood. Some had legacies, but eventually all those family lines were killed off. In fact, as far as he knew, the only legacy line of his father to make it into the modern day was the one Frank Zhang descended from.

In fact, he knew that Frank had some distant cousins that also had his shape shifting abilities. Frank hadn't known this until he became a god, and he remembered rumors that Frank was trying to reunite with them. But that was the only successful legacy line that Poseidon had ever had. He wondered, though, if Percy had remained a demigod and had had children if that legacy line would have been long lasting like Frank's was.

He remembered all the wars his father's demigod children of the Renaissance had caused, though, and he remembered how he had purposefully evaded them. He knew who his father's demigod children were, though, all of them, the unclaimed as well as the claimed. All but one that is.

He was a mysterious boy and looked much like Percy and Poseidon, same hair, same eyes. In fact, this child was also the spitting image of Poseidon. But he was unclaimed. In fact Poseidon didn't recognize him or know him, which was odd since Poseidon knew all of his children, whether he claimed them or not. Poseidon had been rather surprised when Triton had brought him up. Triton only knew about him because he had encountered him. He remembered that day well.

One of the ocean titans had gotten loose and it had been up to Triton to get the Titan under control. In fact his father had sent him to do it.

The battle with the titan hadn't been going well and though Triton couldn't die or rather fade (as the term for Greek and Roman deities were) as he still had the willpower to live, he had been close to being sent to Tartarus and wait who knew how long to reform. That was until this unusual boy had showed up. But as Triton remembered he thought on how he had had his doubts whether this boy really was a demigod as he had claimed for he seemed more like a god, in Triton's opinion. But Triton wasn't sure.

Said boy had pulled him out of the water after taking care of the Titan and proceeded to heal him. Triton hadn't been very conscious during that time, but his fuzzy eyes had caught an image of the boy. When he he'd finally come to, he was by a fireplace on a beach with blanket on top of him. "You're up now, huh?" the boy that looked like Poseidon said and Triton looked up at him, sitting up. The boy didn't stop him. "Nasty creature that was. What was that, anyways? Titan?"

"Yes," Triton had responded warily, not sure what to make of the boy. But the boy had seemed somewhat comfortable around him. "Who are you?" Triton had asked carefully which caused the boy to freeze and look uncomfortable.

"Uh... Brian," the boy stammered suddenly as if looking for a name, and Triton was sure that that wasn't his real name. He looked out in the distance and for the first time Triton noticed that he was on a beach and that that was where Brian was looking.

Triton got up carefully and walked to stand beside him. If this boy had saved him, then why was he lying about his name? "Brian?" Triton had questioned, not sure about the name still.

"Brian," the boy responded firmly this time, looking quite convincing this time. At that Triton wondered if he had imagined that the boy was lying. Maybe he was merely nervous about being in the presence of a god, though he could have sworn that his question had caught the boy off guard the first time.

Triton considered this and considered the boy. "Why did you save me?" Triton inquired honestly, curiosity in his eyes.

"What?" the boy exclaimed. "You would have expected me to leave you and let you die? Or rather in _**your**_ case, get sent to Tartarus?"

A shiver unintentionally ran up Triton's spine and his eyes darkened. "No," he finally admitted, and the corners of his mind registered that this boy smelled like the sea. Not just because he had been in the sea, but as if the sea emanated from him somewhat. Then Triton's mind was brought back to what they were discussing. "It's just that most people would have left me."

The boy stared back at him for a second. "Really?" he questioned somewhat. "Well, I tend to think that if someone has the skills to help, they should."

Triton considered this. "You are unusual," he murmured softly, being surprised by this boy more and more by the minute.

Triton had stayed with him in his makeshift home until he was better to leave. It took about a month for him to heal from his injuries and a little longer to gain back his balance and greater mobility and agility that he'd had before. Brian took care of him and during that time Triton told him about his life. He tried to get the boy to do the same for him but Brian would shake his head and murmur, "Not worth it." He never could get the boy to divulge his secrets. The most he would tell him was that he was a wanderer and a traveler from a far off place trapped away from his family. "Most of them," he would always add.

"But where are the rest?" Triton would always ask only for the boy's lips to twitch and a small smile to break out before it was gone in a second. It happened every time, and each time Brian would respond, "It doesn't matter."

And so, Triton recuperated under his care. When he was ready to leave and return to the ocean he had been ready to repay the boy for his kindness. But to his surprise the boy had shook his head and said, "Don't. If you really appreciate what I did then just pay it forward."

This surprised Triton further. It was not only unusual for people to deny a gift received from a god, but to request for something so selfless. As Triton felt an unusual bond of friendship and closeness to him he asked as he eyed the makeshift shack that was clearly only meant to be a temporary home,"Will I see you again, friend?"

A small smile twitched his lips and he shrugged. "I don't know, friend. Will you?"

Sadness crept into Triton as he realized what that meant. "You won't be here next time I come back, will you?"

Brian's expression told him all he needed to know and Triton felt like he was loosing the closest friend he had ever had. This boy had been more, close to a brother to him. "No," the boy admitted. "I'm leaving, it's time for me to go."

Triton nodded, accepting the fate. "At least let me take you where you need to go," Triton offered, attempting one last time to do something for him. "If you really are far away from home, I can help. I am a god of the seas. I am willing to cross out of my domain to bring you home."

But Brian shook his head. "Doesn't matter, there is nothing you can do for me. You're powers won't bring me to them nor them to me."

But as Triton considered this he was confused further. Clearly this boy's definition of far away was different. "Are you sure?" he asked one last time. The boy nodded and Triton sighed. "Very well," Triton conceded and dove into the ocean.

He swam for a ways, wandering the ocean, glad to be home again. The fish surrounded him and greeted him. "He's back!" they all cheered. "The sea prince is back!"

And so he spent the next few hours greeting his subjects. He even went back to the palace and was welcomed into his mother and father's arms who were so relieved to have him back. Apparently they had sent search parties which had found nothing. They were worried when he hadn't returned home, but Triton was relieved to hear that the Titan that had attacked him was defeated, no doubt by the young boy he had encountered.

And so Triton relayed his story to them, about the boy finding him, about his recovery, everything. But when he told his father his suspicions and how the boy smelled like the sea Poseidon looked confused, even with an angry Amphitrite glaring at him, though truth be told Amphitrite wasn't as miffed as she usually was when she found out about such things. That was probably because the boy had saved Triton's life and befriended him after all.

But there was no denying Poseidon's confused expression. "I know of no such boy," he admitted.

"But he told me he was a demigod," Triton argued, not sure what to make of this encounter. He wanted to at least know who this person was. "He never said who his godly parent was, and whether he was claimed or unclaimed, but he definitely smelled like the sea."

Poseidon shook his head. "Sorry, I know who all of my demigod children are and they are all accounted for." He glanced at his queen who then shook her head.

"Do you really think I would stoop to your level?" Amphitrite responded snidely with disgust and that answered that, though Poseidon really shouldn't have hinted it. Of course his queen would never do such a thing; it was not in her nature.

Shortly afterwords Triton had returned to the surface where he had been cared for only to find the boy gone and not even the house there, as if it had never existed. Where the house went, Triton had no idea, but he couldn't even find trace evidence.

And so it had remained a mystery that sometimes crept back up in Triton's mind. As he lay in the bag and brought himself out of reliving the past, he remembered that he had a job to do. 'And so now I must break these bonds and break out of this bag,' he thought with conviction, fully ready to put all his efforts in. He carefully worked the knife that he normally had strapped to his waste out of the sheath and into his hands. 'And then I have to find my brother and apologize.'

Triton began his attempts to cut the rope.

**Thank you to all who are reviewing!**

**Okay, so a quick explanation on this chapter. I was was originally going to take this chapter somewhere else, but I postponed half that chapter because I got other ideas. So the rest of the half chapter that I had planned is going to come the next chapter as half of this chapter was replaced with something else.**

**That, and I didn't want Triton to seem bad all the time. I wanted to give the readers some sympathy for him, and I wanted to do a little more character development on him. He has a really interesting background, I think, and with luck I'll be able to dig deeper into his character as time goes on. This story and series is, after all, mainly about him and his brother Percy, and since Percy has been explored a lot in Rick's series and Triton hasn't that means that I've got to explore his character more. At the same time, because Rick's series didn't really explore Triton that leaves me more liberty to explore and develop his character without going against canon.**

**That, and I wanted more conflict between Triton and Percy, so this worked out perfectly!  
**

**Hopefully it wasn't too bad. Yes, it has more Triton than Percy in it, but I think Triton's character is fairly interesting.  
**

**Please read and review!**

**Sincerely**

**Firestar'sniece**


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